view raw text
; * — — — — * SOMETHING ABOUT THE BREEDING WHICH PRODUCED A CUP WINNER IN AUSTRALIA By De. H. M. LEACH , • ■ ! , ■ 1 t I i I I . - • I 5 I - « 1 - i f - ! 1 ; 3 3 B 1 e • r • 3 • 0 ■ • 1 s " e T n c s • • • ■*• — The news which came to band a few weeks ago that the Allendale Stock Farms Lavendo bad won the Caulfield Cup at Melbourne, Australia, was es- pecially pleasing to me, for I am convinced that had it not beeu for my energies and influence, Lavendo would never have undertaken the long vovage to the antipodes. Lavendo s age is given as a four-year-old, but when he won the big Caulfield race he was only an October three-year-old, which, of course, makes his victory still more meritorious. Horses, as I sup-i pose most of you know, date their birth from July 1 in the southern hemisphere and it is for this reason that horses, imported to Australia from this country or England, take ou a year as soon as the equator is crossed. Lavendos owners and proprietors of the AUandale Stock Farm, Messrs. Allan and George Tye. though long residents of Melbourne, originally bailed from Canada and their first embarkation in racing was by wav of the trotters. The Messrs. Tye, how- ever, soon came to the conclusion, though they imported some of the best American-bred trotting stock, that the game was not worth the candle and, in 1910 decided to throw in their lot with the runners. With this end in view tbey dispatched their purchasing agent. Mr. Andrew Robertson, to this country. Mr. Robertsons purchases on that trip could not, by any stretch of imagination, be reckoned as anything like first class, but a few good winners resulted. The two Oddfellow fillies, Virginie and Dewberry — sister to the Toboggan Handicap winner. Berry Maid — were among the number. The following year saw Mr. Robertson back with us once more and he took back with him a far better class of horses than he did ou his first . visit. We, for I myself was of the party, left San . Francisco November 5 on the Norwegian tramp Ad- miral Borressen, arriving in Melbourne thirty-three i days later. Some day I hope to write you the story of my first trip south and trust that it may not prove uninteresting reading. All of our horses were i landed in the best of condition, but the long ac- ■ climatization process was ahead of them and when I I bid Australia adieu in the December of 1913, they were only Just coming to hand. Since then, how-s ever things in a racing way have been going : smoothlv enough for the Messrs. Tye. Hamburg Belle. a fine chestnut daughter of Planudes and Saratoga , Belle— dam of Fayette and Iron Duke — has carried I off an Adelaide Cup amongst other races, and Lem-1 • priere has won the three miles Australian Cup. Lempriere, as is Hamburg Belle, is a product of I Hamburg Place, and is a chestnut gelding by The : Scribe out of Colline— W. H. Daniels dam— by Hanover. Just another argument, a clincher in fact, . of the necessity of Herod blood on the dams side s of the house generally, and the excellence of Han-r - over as a broodmare sire in particular. Other * winners there are too. but these are the best of them and a big advertisement for the AUandale s stallions. The Scribe and Planudes. The summer of 1912 found me, in company with i Robertson, in England in a quest, which at one I time seemed to be lwpeless. a few really well-bred 1 horses at prices which would pay us to take them i bloodstock was i out to Melbourne. English-bred . . i i ■ I : , I • I : . s - * s i I 1 i i — — 4. then in the zenith of its fame and prices had reached their high-water mark and no such bargains awaited us as were to be had by the few enterprising American buyers or their representatives who made the trip to England this year. In fact, we had almost despaired of getting hold of a first-class broodmare at anything like a reasonable figure, when young Sam Darling put us on to a mare which he thought might interest us — and we were duly introduced to Lavella, with a colt foal at foot by Chaucer. Lavella herself, is a truly grand type of mare, 16 hands, solid bay, seven years old. Her 1912 two-year-old, after showing speed, unfortunately met with an accident and had to be destroyed and here was a youngster at foot and she was evidently with foal to the St. Leger winner, Troutbeck. La-vellas foal was a brown, a truly magnificent fellow and by Chaucer, sire of Stedfast, winner of twelve straight races and which did not meet his Waterloo until that memorable battle for the Sandown Eclipse Stakes, in which he only succumbed to the indomitable Prince Palatine by the shortest of heads. The price asked for Lavella and colt was one thousand guineas, and I was all for buying on the spot. From the look of things it was apparent there was nothing at all wrong with either of tbem, and to me it looked like the bargain of a life time, but Mr. Robertson, in his cautious Australian way, decided to wait a bit before closing the deal and, eventually got the two for eight hundred pounds — goodness what a bargain. I really think Robertson was as much impressed with the excellencies of the mare and her foal as I, but Australians, as a rule, are cautions people and never do things in 1 a hurry. Everything comes, you know, to him who 1 is willing to wait. To tell the truth, I was on 1 pins and needles until the deal was finally closed 1 and the owner, I learned later, was in dire straits 1 for ready cash. At the time of the sale I made a prediction that we had bought the best colt that would leave the . shores of dear old Albion in 1912, and also that he would win the Melbourne Cup. and hes next door • to having done it, too. There is plenty of time yet for him to win the Flemington big race. The Caulfield Cup was worth this time 0,000, which will go a long way to recompense the . Messrs. Tye for previous disappointments and the only regret I have is, that I, myself, was not t able to participate in the jollification which was 1 certain to attend so popular a victory. Leaving Liverpool per White Star steamship Su- cia, there was a forty-three days voyage ahead I of us, the heat of the tropics to be tolerated, the • cold, snow, wind and hail of the roaring forties 1 left behind, ere we should once more reach our • destination which was accomplished without any serious mishaps. Touching, en route, at Cape Town, , Albany and Adelaide, to wake at sunrise one fairy -I - land morning, we were soon alongside the pier and 1 unloading, and when Allan Tye finally put in his ! appearance I reiterated my prediction that we have brought him a future winner of "The Cup." Here is Lavendos pedigree. There are still to * be found some who insist that breeding race horses * is a mere matter of chance. I, however, prefer r to think otherwise. n t f, ! r ■ a h r • e so to o n •- ■* i " is g to ■ r s s ■ s to o e ■ * a y Vedette 19 J y,oltte*t,.rJ 2E I f r Galopin 3 ] Mrs. Ridgway E I Flying Duchess... j £*• Dutchman., 3 H 1 St. Simon. ..11 i Merope E 3 King Tom 3 j Harkaway 2E ■ i 1st. Angela Pocahontas H 1 f Chaucer 1 Adeline ... J0" - ••• •• 1H I Brown 1 Little Fairy E 3 ■= Hermit 5 Newminster ....8E ■ i . r Tristan 10 J I Seclusion H * 2 Thrift j Stockwell 3E " " i »8 Canterbury . j Braxey E 1 d-= Pilgrim The Earl or j Beadsman 13 E 3 fii I Pilgrimage * S Tne Palmer.. ..5 J Mad- Eglentine. ..H I HI J ? Lady Audrev. . i Macaroni 14 H I B 1 Secret E I S Doncaster 3 J Stockwell 3E 5 Hi g r Bend Or 11 Marigold E 5 re C Rouge Roso Thormanby ....4 H 1 I f Laveno 1 -I ] Delni ■ 3 £ Macaroni m 14 J Sweetmeat 21 H , L Napoli j Jocose H 1 J l i~ivtlla r..„. n. . -t Sunshine J Thormanby 4H 1 ....-H Sunbeam E 2 I Favonius 3 J Parmesan 7H I r Favo W Zephyr E ■ I I Adrasta J St. Albans 2 ; Bclhivalley....i " 1 Nemesis 1 1 7 I Arbitrator 27 j Solon 23 M I l_ Kaled i True Heart E 5 Tantrum Lord Lyon 19 E J Vex H I E — Eclipse. H — Herod. M — Matchem. 1 of jj ■ ■ ,e lS S in 11 iu n in n in n « *■ is il ■ I. 1- •• in as is a a at it is II n g x .11 of f le .- r- ie d lie ie II g a a — Lavendos pedigree shows that he is bred on the out-cross plan of mating and that the three great lines of Herod, Matchem and Eclipse are balanced to a nicety. Chaucer, the sire, is. of course, a son of St. Simon and of Eclipse descent in tail male and during his racing career was returned the winner of two Liverpool Cups and has attained to much distinction as a sire and Chaucer is owned by I»rd Derby, whose recruiting scheme has met with such a ready response in England. Chaucers dam. Canterbury Pilgrim, herself an Oaks winner, is also the dam of that mighty race horse Swynford, winner of the St. Leger and which. as a four-year-old, proved altogether too good for the Derby winner Lemberg. Canterbury Pilgrims sire Tristan, which, although he could not interest St. Simon, was good enough to win •tan Ascot Gold Cup and many another good race besides, and was by Hermit, out of a granddaughter of the im-»r mortal Queen Mary. Next in line comes PI1-n grimage, another great winner, by Rosicrucians brother. The Palmer, and Pilgrimage in addition to Canterbury Pilgrim produced the sensational 100 to 1 shot Derby winner, the gigantic Jed-is dah. This is a famous branch of the No. 1 family and Chaucers pedigree leaves little to be desired. Lavella is a daughter of Mr. Honldsworths fav-1" orite Laveno. winner of one of the ten thousand pounders, and the sire of many good race horses and broodmares, including Veneration, dam of that wonderfully speedy horse Craganour which finished first but was subsequently disqualified for the Derby of 1913. Laveno is by Bend Or out of Napoli, by Maca- roni and this self-same St. Simon— Bend Or cross has. ere this, resulted in the production of many of Englands best, notably Zinfandel and the peer- less Sceptre. Everyone who knows anything at all about bloodstock, knows the value of the Bend Or line and this year again finds. In Poly- inelus, a descendant of the Duke of Westminsters Derby winner at the head of the English winning stallions. Australian turfmen are well informed as to the extreme excellence of this Napoli branch of the No. 1 family, for is not Mr, Sol Greens famous sire Positano a grandson of Napoli, and 1 Positano, to date, has sired, in Lord Cardigan, , Lord Nolan, Poseidon and Piastre four winners 5 of. the Melbourne Cup. I, myself, witnessed the triumph of the last named and, though Piastre ■ is no beauty to look at, hes game and honest t to the core, and next to Trafalger, the best horse i I saw race during my sojourn in the land of the i Southern Cross. Napolis sire. Macaroni, was probably one of the i three greatest broodmare sires the paddock ever r knew, a Herod, of course, and during these dreary r winter months I propose to write something of f these famous broodmare sires of Herod and Matchem 1 descent. Now, however, comes the real milk in 1 the cocoanut. Bellavalley, Laveudos grandam, , is by the Herod horse Favo and her dam is Kaled, . by the Matchem sire Arbitrator. Assuredly the i Bruce Lowe adherent will point with glee to the i fact that Favo and Laveno return the No. 1 strain 1 to Chaucer, but there is no getting away from the » fact that Lavendo shows a pedigree which in every t way brings out the extreme value of the outcross i anil balancing of the blood lines plan of mating. Favo, Bellavalleys sire, is by one of Baron 1 Rothschilds Derby winners, Favonius, and is best f known, on this side of the Atlantic, as the sire * of Enoch Wishards Royal Flush, which was afterwards - acquired by the late James B. Haggin to ~ stand for service at his Elmendorf Stud, where I I do not think he was accorded the patronage he so richly deserved. Arbitrator is best known to fame as the sire of [ Kilwarlin. winner of the St. Leger. and Kilwarlin in turn sired the Futurity winner Ogden which, since his acquisition by John Madden, bas scored such 1 a signal success as a sire at Hamburg Place. The more I study Lavendos pedigree, the more J I am enamored of it, the component parts of f which dovetail into a mosaic which is well nigh 1 flawless. Pray pardon my enthusiasm and tolerate a my. perhaps pardonable, pride, for I encircled the 9 globe in an endeavor to find a youngster good 1 enough to win a Melbourne Cup and, perhaps, found j him at the first time of asking.
