The Horses

 

“If I were young, fast, healthy, and had a lot of money and my whole sex life ahead of me, I'd retire - like Secretariat.” Dick Butkus, American footballer

 

Night Raid

 

Night Raid outlived both Phar Lap and Alec Roberts, dying at John McDonald’s Timaru property November 1943 at the age of 25. On his balance of stud work, Night Raid, for such a maligned horse prior to coming to Australia and especially prior to him coming to New Zealand, could only be viewed as incredibly successful.  At the time of his death, Night Raid’s progeny had just collectively chalked up over £177,000 in winnings.[1] In the 1930’s and 1940’s this was enormous as he topped the sire’s list for a season in Australia when both Phar Lap and Nightmarch were all conquering. These two horses alone account for nearly £100,000 of those earnings. But there were others – the colt Nightly, out of Miss Muriel (St.Simon/Galopin line on both sire and dam) won the 1933 New Zealand Derby.[2] Another colt foaled the same year as Nightly, Blixten, out of Receipt (Galopin line on both sire and dam) won the 1933 Rosehill Guineas, VRC Batman Stakes and third in Hall Mark’s AJC Derby. Pillow Fight out of the imported mare Week End (later purchased by David Davis and taken to America) won the 1932 Avondale Guineas, Nocturnus captured a Grand Nation Steeple while Nightbean, Wheriko, Aesculus, Authentic, Companion, Lady Graceful, Night Pilot, Secret Flight. The Cardinal and Winbyie all saw a winner’s circle at least once in their careers.[3]

Night Raid really is a prime example for breeders of just how difficult it is to pick a profitable stallion. Even in the hands of the most experienced horsemen no one could predict Night Raid becoming as successful as he did. Not Frederick Stern who bred him nor Douglas Pennant or Tom Hogg who bought him as a yearling. They could not sell him quick enough, thinking him destined for celibacy. Then came John McGuigan, who bought Night Raid only to patronizingly state, “…he may good for the colonies.” Neither Peter Keith, who imported him only to sell him shortly thereafter to Paddy Wade, and not certainly not Paddy Wade, who was glad to see the back of him. Experienced breeders and importers the calibre of Andrew Robertson and Kio Ora stud master Percy Miller, who were both advising Wade at the time, also failed to see any potential in Night Raid.  And finally there was Alec Roberts, who was selling his Night Raid’s progeny for a song.  All could say what they like afterwards but none picked him as a successful sire until Nightmarch and Phar Lap suddenly burst into action.

 

The only exception in this long chain of disgruntled owners and breeders could be Gladstone Park’s George Kain who took a chance on sending his Martian mare Marsa to Seadown Stud and give Robert’s new unknown sire an opportunity. The other men claiming they saw any potential in Night Raid before the stellar careers of Nightmarch and Phar Lap took off were Ken Austin, Eric Connolly and George Jones. And for all that, Jones later spouting about his deep belief in Night Raid’s siring abilities, when put to the test, he too baulked. Attending the 1928 Trentham auction, Jones could find little merit in Phar Lap as a yearling.

 

“Eric Connolly and George Jones often talked about Night Raid. Both were certain he would sire good stock. Jones was at ringside when Night Raid’s famous yearling was sold. He couldn’t find one redeeming feature in the youngster. He would probably make a good steeplechaser one day was his observation to a friend.”

 

After Alec Roberts passed away in 1931, all his stock were sold at their dispersal sale bar one horse. Ethel Roberts leased Night Raid out to the Ken Austin managed Elderslie Stud until its dispersal in 1939. Due to the care and affection Robert’s old manager John McDonald had always displayed with Night Raid, Ethel Roberts made a gift of the horse to McDonald where he lived out his days doing only light seasons at stud on mainly McDonald’s own mares.

 

Ken Austin was a close friend of Andrew Robertson and both men were widely respected as two of Australasia’s best bloodstock authorities at the time. Surprisingly, even after Phar Lap won the Agua Caliente Handicap in such a convincing manner, the London Sporting Life continued its scathing assessment of Night Raid, describing him as the “ugliest sire” in New Zealand[4]. Since Night Raid had just become Austin’s main sire at Elderslie, it would come as little surprise Austin was quick to protect his investment and ensure the bloodline authenticity of Night Raid remained beyond question.

 

“Night Raid, in company I think with a horse called Cymric, by Cylgad, was shipped to Australia in 1920, and all the papers were in order or they would not have been accepted in the Australian Stud Book- whose doors are like the Bank of England to get through.”[5]

 

There have been far more credentialed and pricier sires imported into Australia and New Zealand who have proved not nearly as successful as Night Raid.  There have been even less sires throughout the history of breeding producing progeny to the calibre of Phar Lap. Night Raid was humanely euthanized by John McDonald in September 1943. 

 

Entreaty

 

Entreaty proved a successful broodmare beyond being the dam to just Phar Lap. She is dam to Fortune’s Wheel, related to three times Australian and four times New Zealand Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer, Sunline. She produced a wonderful steeplechaser Vindicator and broodmare to Nea Lap, dam of Four Freedoms and Raphis (dam of broodmare of the year – Bobalong – dam of 1956 VRC & AJC Derby winner Monte Carlo, second to Baystone in the 1958 Melbourne Cup).

 

After spending eight years with Roberts, following his death, Entreaty was purchased by Christchurch based Fred Armstrong for 1500 guineas. In foal to Night Raid, she produced the disappointing Friday Night. She was again matched with Night Raid producing Te Uira. She more than made up for Entreaty’s purchase price, being sold to Shanghai based bullion broker Henry Morriss for 2000 guineas and sent to his English stud Banstead Manor Stud.[6] Morriss owned Phalaris sired champion Manna, which sired 1934 2000 Guineas winner Colombo and twice Australian sire of the year, Manitoba.  Entreaty died in October 1943 from blood poisoning shortly after she foaled a Nightmarch filly. Night Raid had passed away only a few weeks earlier. 

 

 

Nightmarch

 

In the Member’s stand at Riccarton Park, there is a room used for meetings, seminars and functions. Etched on the swinging glass double doors in large platinum print, “THE NIGHTMARCH ROOM”. Inside the room above another door, hangs pride of place, a huge photo in a glass frame of Nightmarch and Roy Reed. At his Canterbury home, Nightmarch is still seen as one of the very best horses to come out of New Zealand and one of the greatest to ever run at Riccarton Park. Which makes it all the stranger why he is not in New Zealand Racing’s Hall of Fame. Nightmarch deserves to be there. Running in any other era than one inhabited by Phar Lap, his entry into the Hall of Fame would have been automatic.

 

The dapple brown Nightmarch passed away in October 1954 at Alf Louisson’s Ladbrooks Stud at the grand age of 30 having won over £32,000 in stakes.[7] Louisson had passed away three months earlier, aged 87. but made provision in his will that Nightmarch was never to be sold and kept in comfort for the remainder of his life.[8] However, a little like tennis champion Venus Williams having to constantly deal with her all conquering younger sibling Serena[9], so too did Nightmarch suffer from the brilliance of Phar Lap. So while £32,000 was seen in the late 1920’s and early ‘30’s as impressive, particularly with the onset of a global Depression, it was still viewed by most as being stymied by true greatness. For without Phar Lap constantly defeating him, Nightmarch would have been viewed as an out and out champion in his own right. Yet, if you view Nightmarch in the light of what he was running against, he was a champion and should be celebrated as such. There have been many great horses over the journey who have been shaded by the brilliance of an even greater horse.

 

One only has to look at Hartnell and Happy Clapper in the time of Winx. Possibly the most glaring example being Sham. Here is a horse that could have been remembered as a US Triple Crown winner. Now, he is hardly remembered at all. Secretariat can rightly claim to being one of the greatest, if not, the greatest racehorse of all time. Nearly 50 years after scoring his Triple Crown victory, he still holds the race record times for the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Nice. What is less known - the horse that came second? Sham, actually holds the record for having run the second fastest time ever in a Kentucky Derby. That record has also held for nearly 50 years. Sham then followed Secretariat in at the Preakness only to be injured trying to keep up with the wonder horse during his astonishing Belmont run. Sham never raced again. In any other era not dominated by Secretariat, Sham would have been seen as extraordinary and very likely have won the Triple Crown in 1973. Likewise, Nightmarch would have trounced most opposition of his day and would have most certainly be entered into both the 1930 Caulfield and Melbourne Cups with every likelihood of being successful.

 

To some degree the same applies to the New Zealand gelding Paquito, most famous for coming second to Nightmarch in the 1929 Melbourne Cup. Owned and bred by Canterbury based Herbert Knight and trained by Fred Jones, this pair’s best known horse being Limerick. What is less reported was that Paquito also came second to Nightmarch in the 1929 Randwick Spring Handicap, out of the placings in Nightmarch’s Epsom victory, third behind Locquacious and Nightmarch in that famous 1929 Metropolitan, second to Nightmarch in the 1929 Melbourne Cup and finally second again to Nightmarch the following February at Dunedin in the James Hazlett Gold Cup. Paquito was a very good galloper but could never best Nightmarch. And like Phar Lap being Nightmarch’s nemesis, in turn Nightmarch was Paquito’s.

Retired to stud in 1932 when he was seven, Nightmarch was a more successful sire than he is often given credit for. At the time of his death, Nightmarch’s progeny had generated close on £100,000 in winning stakes in New Zealand and a further £10,000 in Australia after 21 season at stud.[10] Among his male progeny, a ¾ brother to Phar Lap, Vindicator out of Entreaty winning a few steeplechasers. Easily his best colt being Representative winner of the Avondale Cup, Avondale Guineas and the Great Northern Guineas. Some of Nightmarch’s mares however were very good. Serenata out of Limond sired Oaks winner Praise won the 1940 New Zealand Cup. Matched with Beau Vite, she in turn foaled Liebestraum, and like its grandfather, winner of 1947 New Zealand Derby.  Also sired by Nightmarch out of Praise, Russian Ballet won the 1938 Wanganui Guineas and Great Northern Champagne Stakes for Louisson. Praise and Nightmarch also produced Louisson’s 1947 Great Northern Oaks and St Leger winner Regal Praise.[11] Nightmarch’s stock never really lost too much value and his progeny were still being sent to yearling sales when he was servicing mares at 26.[12] 

 

All said and done, Nightmarch should be honoured in either, or both, the Australian or New Zealand Racing Halls of Fame.  He was recognised, even more than Amounis, as being the second best horse in Australasia in the time of Phar Lap. Many of Nightmarch’s 18 seconds could have been wins, but for one horse. Also Nightmarch is the first horse to have ever won the very difficult Cox Plate/Melbourne Cup double. Phar Lap won it the following year. If Phar Lap really is the greatest Australasian racehorse of all time, then racing historians should be asking, what does that make Nightmarch?

 

Alfred Louisson understood his horse’s value and was interesting to note, New Zealand horses were subject to the 2.5% Federal Government primage duty when they raced in Australia. By that primage, Nightmarch was being valued at £5,000 by customs.[13] Louisson would believe he was saving a few quid. Anybody coming up to Alfred Louisson with the measly offer of £5,000 for Nightmarch in 1930 would have been given a very short hearing.

 

Amounis

 

After winning the 1930 Caulfield Cup and breaking Gloaming’s earnings record in the process,[14] Amounis only had three more races in his amazing career. Two weight for age – 1930 Melbourne and Linlithgow Stakes both won by Phar Lap, missed his nine year old season and one unplaced race, the 1932 Warwick Stakes, as a ten year old before finally retiring. Yet even when Amounis was announced as Australian racing’s highest earner, the racing public and press asked the obvious question of just how good was Amounis? Like everything, an instant comparison was being asked about the previous holder Gloaming?  On records alone, it is difficult to believe Amounis the better of the two champion horses.

 

An indicator, although not always an accurate one, of how Gloaming was seen as a better horse than Amounis was by virtue that Gloaming was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2004 while Amounis needed to wait a few more years to 2006.[15] Both horses have impressive race records, while Gloaming’s is truly outstanding.  Having started 67 times, he won 57 of those races, placed second nine times and only unplaced once when he fell at the starting barrier. Let’s face it, if you ever wanted to buy a racehorse, that’s the one you want. Amounis started an extraordinary 79 times stretched over an even more remarkable nine seasons.

 

Whenever question arose with Frank McGrath as to how he rated his champion horses over the years, unsurprisingly Amounis, Price Foote and Peter Pan were all prominent.  But even in the company of those brilliant Melbourne Cup winners, McGrath always thought his champion gelding the best horse he trained.  Without doubt, Amounis the most profitable horse with the amount of successful bets McGrath enjoyed with Pearson and the Vandenbergs along with stake money. In an age dominated by Phar Lap, very few horses emerged with any sort of glory or fame from this period; Amounis stands out with Nightmarch as one of the few exceptions. 

 

Amounis died aged 26 in September 1948 at Phil Tyler’s Puen Buen Stud at Scone. He outlived Billy Pearson, Frank McGraw, Maude Vandenberg and Eric Connolly.

 

Cragford

 

Champion jockey Scobie Breasley thought the two best Australia horses he had ridden were not any of his five Caulfield Cup horses. Although he considered all of them wonderful, he rated the best two as the injury prone Lawrence and the brilliant colt Cragford.

 

Breasley admitted having a soft spot for Cragford, being his first major winner to kick start his long and illustrious career that later involved his Caulfield Cups, two Victoria and Epsom Derbies, four British Jockey of the Year awards, Hall of Fame and being elevated to legend status. Cragford was no doubt a wonderful horse but even as they stood waiting to start the 1930 Caulfield Cup, Cragford was a very unwell horse. A mysterious stomach ailment started a fortnight before in Sydney, could neither be diagnosed nor could it be cured. After running fourth at Caulfield, by the following Wednesday Pat Quinlan retired Cragford from the remainder of the carnival including the Melbourne Cup. Hoping he could get his horse back into shape by autumn, it was not to be.

 

Suffering from “a severe internal complaint” that many other Sydney horse contracted around the same time, Cragford’s condition worsened from concern to despair.  Both Pat Quinlan and owner John Arthur could do nothing for their prized colt. A week after gamely running fourth in the Caulfield Cup, Cragford was dead. Even in post mortem little could be deduced other than internal inflammation. One of those “what if’s” sport continually throws up but for many, had Cragford survived, he could well have been a strong contender for the 1931 Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.

 

Soulton

 

Soulton continued racing in Queensland under trainer Norm Fogarty who was also training horses held by Harry Winton’s brother Darcy. Soulton raced until a general sigh of relief went up when Harry Winten finally retired him as a ten year old in 1934. He won a race in 1933, which had been his first victory for two years. His early record would have looked better had he not had the misfortune of going up against High Syce for much of his career. Winten decided against selling Soulton, rather gifting him to May Wood, an accomplished equestrian. Soulton finished his days in the show ring.[16]

 

Alcman

 

Price kept training Alcman after the Caulfield Cup for the next few seasons to very little success. A third in a Hotham Handicap, second in the 1931 Sydney Cup and won a Monee Ponds Handicap in among his 30 unplaced starts.[17] Alcman was not used as a sire.

 

 

 

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[1] Toodyay Herald 5 November 1943, page 2

[2] Also won the Canterbury Cup and 1934 Moonee Valley Gold Cup, Randwick, C.B. Fisher and Clifford Plates and as a five year old, the James Hazlett Gold Cup in 1935.

[3] Pedigree Query and Racing Calendars

[4] Sydney Sportsman, 9 July 1932, page 9

[5] Ibid

[6] Auckland Star

[7] Champions of the Turf by Roger Crane, Racetrack January 1966

[8] News 12 October 1954, page 40

[9] Although Venus Williams has won five Wimbledon’s and defeated Serena once in those five, she has lost the title three times to Serena. Venus also won two US Opens, once against her sister but also lost one against Serena.  On the other hand, unlike the Williams sisters, Nightmarch and Phar Lap couldn’t play double. The sisters have two US open doubles, two French doubles, four Australia doubles and six Wimbledon doubles titles.  Possibly worth noting of their 14 Grand Slam doubles, they have never appeared in a final and lost.

[10] News 12 October 1954, page 40

[11] Turf Monthly December 1954

[12] Ibid

[13] Examiner 15 August 1930, page 2

[14] With Phar Lap rampaging his way to victory in every weight for age encounter, the record would be short lived.

[15] Australian Racing Hall of Fame

[16] Maryborough Chronicle, 10 September 1934, page 6

[17] Morning Bulletin, 27 November 1937, page 13