WHO WAS FIRST-AND WHO WASN’T !

11) WHEN 10 WAS A BIG RACING TEAM IN NZ THIS STABLE HAD 68 !

THE BIGGEST TEAM WE HAD EVER SEEN

Many times you hear harness fans, especially older harness fans, talk about how the big stables are dominating harness racing and often a comment that suggests this is ruining the game or at least making harder for the punter.

But big racing teams, while not common, go back a long way. All the way back to James Bryce the Scotsman who revolutionised harness racing here after his arrival with his family and two horses just before World War One

He started in a humble way gradually rising to the top as local owners recognised his great talent. 

By the time he retired in the 1940’s he had experienced many ups and down but his list of FIRSTS in our game is phenomenal.

For example he established the first SATELLITE  STABLE in New Zealand as far back as 1922 when his son, Andy. opened an arm of the Hornby stable at Epsom and remained there for  years on and off.  That decision was driven by stable numbers just as later satellite stables have been again almost solely between Christchurch and Auckland.

James also became the FIRST trainer to prepare 6 NZ Cup winners which he completed  in 1933 with Red Shadow whose dam was one of the horses he had brought out from Scotland and she all but drowned on the way. It wasn’t until 1979 that that Cup record was equalled by Cecil Devine and not until 2019 that Mark Purdon beat it. 

When they finally started counting training premierships officially the Bryce stable won the first seven !

Bryce also played a key role in the coming of the present starting system in trotting, writing to the Press when controversy was raging about standing and clock rated starts stating that the yards (metres) system  from a stand was the fairest way to start a trotting race. Addington finally adopted the system soon afterward,

In the years between 1916 and 1936-James’s last drive in the race-the stable had run in 19 NZ Cups and been in the first four in 15 of them ! 

It included the first stable quinella in the great race.  In that era  the Bryce stable, then a showplace  at Hornby, used the  FIRST  fully constructed equine swimming pool in New Zealand.

There were all sorts of other records set as the Bryce family through sons Andy and Jimmy, one of them winning the forerunner to the Inter Dominions in Perth in the mid 1920’s, a huge pioneer undertaking in those far off days.All three Bryces won NZ Cups.

But wait there’s more.

In the early 1920’s it was reported that Bryce had 68 horses under his care at Hornby, 

In those days many trainers only had five horses in work and 10 horses was considered a large racing stable. So we are talking about comparing Bryce with today’s trainers who have around 150 horses in their care. Not many. Probably not any. 

Last Saturday All Stars, for example,had 58 in work or having a day off. In earlier years its numbers were higher but not in Bryce league. 

Fortunately there weren’t any strike rate tables then,

The big team sometimes got James and his team into trouble. There was at least one court case by an owner claiming he had been ripped off because some of his horses were not in training at Hornby. Bryce sometimes sent horses into town to pull hansom cabs in the early stages of their preparation. It was simply too hard to work this many horses at home. Not enough hours in the day. 

His huge numbers had a bad result in the late 1930’s when the great trainer, then a veteran,  had to declare bankruptcy after the toll taken by the Depression years. The showplace stable’s day had come as a result.  But he never lost his reputation as a horseman of remarkable ability.

On the other hand the Bryce stable was in huge demand from owners wanting their good horses transferred there. Hard to turn them down. Bryce had lifted the standards since his arrival and only really battled when Bill Tomkinson and Jack Kennerley and others arrived from Australia later in the 1920’s.

James Bryce with 68 horses in work doesn’t seem to have done the game much harm after all.  But it must have been a headache at the time !

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10-A WORLD RECORD DIVIDEND OF OVER 1000 TO ONE-BUT HOW COULD THAT ACTUALLY HAPPEN ?

Its quite well known that a grey mare called Wairoa Belle paid over 1000 pounds to win at a Nelson meeting in 1920. On a totalisator it was a world record win and place dividend. But how did it happen at a faraway meeting as Nelson was to the trotting world at large in those days ? Didn’t anybody know anything ? And how much money was going through the tote ?

To answer the last question first, plenty.

It was a record crowd for the club with several thousand people said to be on the course. The turnover of more than 12,000 pounds, was nearly double that of the previous year and a respectable figure for many a city club. 1500 pounds of that was invested on Wairoa Belle ‘s race and one ticket took most of it.

The previous best dividend in Australasia had been set in Adelaide in 1880 by DOD at 800 pounds and then as here there was only one winning ticket. A punter backed the horse, who had failed earlier in the day because of the green colours =, the punter being Irish.

Wairoa Belle, owned and trained by Leo Berkett then a farmer rather than a trainer , had also failed earlier in the day and Berkett was lucky to be allowed to start the mare a second time. He had to lower the hopples (using string) so the earlier wounds would not be re-opened! Try that in 2020. But this was 1920.

Wairoa Belle and another grey mare shard the pace and under a desperate drive Wairoa Belle, who had belonged to a church minister before her ability was made known to Berkett got up. But in 16 starts she had so far failed to win and she would never win again. But champions names are forgotten when Wairoa Belle and her hopples tied up with string are remembered.

World records are easy to claim and hard to justify but bear in mind that the totalisator was not a popular innovation in many racing jurisdictions and betting on course was banned in the US at that time. Bookmakers odds could be huge but the huge odds were virtually never paid out. So a world record for a single winner it was. And, in Australasia, still remains easily the record. At that time no horse here had ever paid more than 500/1 in either code. A Westport pacer paid close to 300 pounds on its home track in 1947, the Woodcock stable being confident supporters.

The lone ticketholder at Nelson was not Berkett but Sol Levien, a Nelson merchant who took the money ending in zero and left the remainder to the tote staff. As usual there were hard luck stories but the heartbreaker belonged to a loyal Westport supporter of the old grey mare.

She had raced over the Westport meeting leading into Nelson and one follower kept the faith.

Trouble was no TAB then, only bookmakers. So our man backed her in both starts at Nelson.

He lost on the first and won the second-but bookmakers had a dividend limit of 15/1 and 15 pounds is what our friend got.

Enough to make grown men cry.

*******

9 -ONE DAY, ONE MAN, ONE HORSE, 3 WINS-JUST ONE OF VIC ALBORN’S MANY RECORDS

Vic Alborn, was a true West Coaster (of the Buller variety) and doubtless still considered himself one when he died in Nelson om 1967, had an extraordinary career -and not just in harness racing.

But that was where he was best known both for his many top level horses several of which he raced himself, and two of his feats on Coast circuits neither of which has been equalled since.

The first was when Colonel Axworthy won three races in one day at Reefton, virtually Vic’s home town meeting, in December 1937.

Vic took two horses there, one a warm favourite in a trotting event who broke hopelessly. Colonel Axworthy made up for that

He won his first race rather easily at 12.50 by two lengths and repeated that feat just after 3 pm. He did it easily enough for Alborn to take his place in the final event around 5 pm and he won that one by two lengths as well. In each race he faced 8 opponents.

Statisticians, not reliant on the Internet, were still quick to point out that the feat had been achieved twice before in the 1890’s. They overlooked the great Princess winning 4 in one day in 1889. But anyone trying to repeat Alborn’s feat today would be more likely charged by the SPCA. Times have changed.

Alborn set another Coast circuit record. His horse Nationalist won a race at Westport , headed from the finish to the start and won the following race. The second race was the Westport Cup the feature of the meeting! . No Westport Cup winner has done that before or since

Alborn was an amazing personality. Brought up largely in NZ at the Inangahua Junction where his family ran the Alborn hotel. Vic farmed in that area but was also an active miner, applying for many coal licenses over the years, ultimately leasing out his farm and the hotel to pursue mining and racing in Reefton.

An example of his enterprise was his effort to drive at a Nelson meeting in 1920. He drove at Timaru on Thursday, caught the express to Christchurch that evening and then drove 400km to Nelson mostly on rough gravel roads to be at the races on the Friday. Unhappily he didn’t win a race there for his trouble.

While Vic was doubtless a master of the “conditioners” all trainers used in that era-and once was charged over their use but not punished- he had rare gifts in the judgement of animals.

Horse after horse went into Alborn’s stable under a cloud and emerged as a star. He bought and sold as much as any modern bloodstock agent but almost always raced them himself or with one partner-usually then a previous owner in a partnership.

He was extraordinarily skilful in developing a horse’s confidence and performance. To underline that success, Alborn was twice the leading owner in New Zealand during the war years. In 1946 his horses won 10 thousand pounds, the first five figure sum ever won by a harness owner. At that time a family home could be bought for less than a tenth of that. All but 1000 pounds went into his own pocket. Yet his horses were only rarely favourites at Addington. Vic tended as a driver to take the long way home a habit that gave punters pause. What he was very good at was rating horses in front. One of his best, Vesuvius was a noted front runner and so hugely popular with the public

His own best horse Burt Scott, bought cheaply from his breeder when battling four year old set a record that season winning 10 races (2 placings) from 12 starts in1942. Southern-developed stars like Maori Home and Dundee Sandy added to his later victories and Flagship was one of his last and one of his few two year old performers. He had a host of top trotters like Royal Romance, Bulls Eye and Fair Isle to name three

Born in England in 1887, but arriving here as a baby, Vic married a Westport girl in 1908 (one of his sons was killed in a hunting accident) and started training as an amateur during WW1 though he soon had one of the biggest owner-trainer teams on the Coast. But he was also farming and running coal mines . Finally success forced his move to Christchurch in the ;ater 1930’s where he also operated a large coal business.

From the beginning of his career until near the end he always did his own shoeing.

No doubt about it, Vic was one of the lesser sung heroes of harness racing, the most successful trainer to emerge from west of the Alps.

Curiously however he never listed his occupation as a horse trainer. It was always as a miner or coal mine owner.

Curiously, in that he must have made a lot of money from coal to equal his success in racing

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8- STANDING START- ADDINGTON WAS LAST TO APPROVE !

So you thought decisions over  mobiles and the present rating handicapping system were controversial.

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Standing starts, which many Kiwis still maintain is the best way to start a horse race, took more than 20 years to become the established way of doing things.

Ongoing  controversy, argument, even personal attacks;and obstinate support even if it meant ignoring edicts from the all powerful  Trotting Conference. raged for decades before being decided.

And one of the biggest enemies of standing starts was the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club at Addington. Just as it would be reluctant to introduce mobile starts and was  comparatively slow to bring in night trotting it was the last major club and one of the last of all clubs to agree to run standing start races for all events. And that was only because it was forced to.

So if you are frustrated by the rate of change in harness racing here is proof that it has always been so.

As far as can be established the first standing start races with handicaps began in 1875 in Otago, when mixed sports days were popular and the district was the chief supporter of organised trotting in this country. It was based on the way athletic events were handicapped but less successfully for obvious reasons.

It was soon superseded in favour of the -  “Time” system whereby horses were handicapped in seconds and went off in a moving start when their time showed on the clock and the starter said go.

This remained in vogue officially until 1922 but about 20 years before that Forbury Park maintained the Otago influence being the first club to re-introduce standing starts. They were certainly operating in 1901

In those days the rules allowed both systems.Forbury converted seconds to yards (12 yards to the second) and pushed on. Its measure is still used converted to metrics.

It was soon the system in all Otago clubs, and the Southland clubs followed suit. 

Most  North Island clubs adopted the standing start notably Auckland  one of whose meetings Canterbury licence holders threatened to boycott if it continued with the system.

Fortunately Forbury had an expert -and, more important, a thick skinned - starter in Bill Dunne who did not react in public to the torrent of criticism and even abuse from some owners trainers and drivers. In those days the system took an exceptional starter to fill the bill and this Bill was one.

Neither did Auckland fold to criticism -and the leading trainer of the era James Bryce took pen to paper to label Manawatu as the most successful standing start club in the country. But most Canterbury clubs, with the notable exception of Ashburton where infighting became bitter, and later New Brighton,stuck to the seconds system with the big clocks.

Why such a fuss ?

Both systems had their problems. 

Administrators felt the seconds handicapping system was a bad look for the public. Quite right. A bad look ! It would cause riots today.

Horses who went “before their time”  -were “called out” or disqualified during (often) or after the race. So punters would be celebrating their good luck as their fancy was comfortably clear  only to find it signalled out of the race not far from the winning post.

No Tv replays to sort it out either.

There could be  a lot of horses milling around at the start in big fields and starters were sometimes flat to keep up with who was where. Sharp witted drivers knew how to exploit  any weaknesses, usually only copping a fine at the worst for any transgressions.It was the number of fines that shifted the balance in favour of the stand with the Conference.

Standing starts also had their problems before the  starting barrier system was developed here- a virtual copy by Harry Reynolds of Christchurch of one in use in Australia where standing starts had been in vogue for some years. It was to change the game.

A good  working system here (there weren’t that many) before the barrier changed everything  saw a disc being placed on the ground for each handicap mark, which could often go back to 100m and further.

A man would stand at each starting point and when his “lot” were standing well he would signal to the starter and when all the line stewards were happy the starter let them all go.Manawatu even had a “green light” bell push system.

There could be up to 6 or 7 lines of “standing” horses however and many found it too much trouble and so opposed the change.

The brigade supporting the time system also pointed out also that the handicapped horses had to run further than the advertised distance from a stand while supporters of  the standing start noted it was much fairer for front row horses who were disadvantaged by the seconds system beginning almost from a stand while back markers were often at full speed.

Yet leading trainers continued to back the seconds system used by Addington, possibly because of the advantage their better horses would probably lose from a yards system. 

Even in the mid 1920’s when standing starts were compulsory a survey of leading drivers including James Bryce and Bill Tomkinson plumped for the timed start-probably for the reason above. But their opinions did seem to vary!

Addington was a hodge podge. It had the odd standing start from 1908 but did not use the system in the New Zealand Cup until 1916. Then it reverted to the timing clock for the Cup until forced to change six years later- 47 years after the system was first used and 20 years after a significant move to reinstate it.

The Trotting Conference was for much of this time dithering, reluctant to make a compulsory decision while a significant number of clubs were split on what that decision should be. Even though H F Nicoll from the strongly pro-standing start Ashburton club-then the leading provincial club in New Zealand -supported stands he did acknowledge problems when the fields were very large. So the Conference never got past a “recommendation” before 

Finally in 1922 the seconds timing system was banned and all clubs had to use the standing start system.

So if the standing start took 20 years to gain full approval what hopes for other new ideas ?

As the ad says “good things take time”. They certainly do in harness racing

7-THE COMING OF THE MOBILE -AND IT DIDN’T COME QUICKLY !

So often in New Zealand it is not the big clubs that are the most innovative but the smaller ones, perhaps more open to new ideas -when the code bosses let them.

So Greymouth had night trotting before Addington; the totalisator often wrongly claimed as a first for a Riccarton meeting in 1880  had been tried in Timaru before then-and even female drivers. Small clubs would license them for a day then the big boys would ban them.

There are many other examples.

So it was with mobile starts, a saga in New Zealand controversial for more than 100 years and still dividing some fans.

For most of that time mobiles were better known as “moving starts”  and even under the “ÿards” handicapping system that required stands, ways were found to try moving starts (NZ FFA as in this series) now and again  through the 1920’s.

Apart from that about the only way a local could set a world class time record was in time trials, one reason they were as popular as races in those times.

America had developed mobile gates before WW2 but for a variety of reasons they took 20 years to be tried here. One reason was conservatism, but the main one was that mobiles destroyed our complicated handicapping system, Now we have mobiles but still have a  complicated handicapping system.

Visits to America in the 1950’s for the first time, impressed some locals especially Hawera’s Alex Corrigan with the use of  mobiles and he came home and built one himself. It cost him a small fortune to do it and even more to tour the country trying to get it accepted.

And he was on the Trotting Conference!. If he hadn’t been able to berate his fellows about his “toy” at the Conference table we would probably have waited another decade for the gate.

Corrigan’s Land Rover- pulled gate wasn’t much chop. Once the horses got going it was so slow it had to get off the track pronto. Corrigan used No 8 wire technology, adding superchargers, extra carburrettors and all the boy racer gear to make it go faster. But  Land Rovers were never noted for speed.

Corrigan had enough influence to start an official race with his gate in April 1957 at his home track of Hawera. The race was won by Brahman, driven by Cecil Donald  who had set a yearling world record at Addington some time before. Brahman was notoriously difficult from a stand. In modern times he may have been a superstar.

Some months before Addington had returned to “moving starts” with a mile long Rattray Stakes won by Tactician in 1.59.8 the first race better than two minutes run here. With some innovative thinking it could have been that much earlier. The brilliant mare, Merval, also extremely nervous from the stand, posted close to two minutes for her placing in that race. Some breeders soon began to see the light. But moving starts were like a box of chocolates in efficiency and the “gate” for the horses to follow was an obvious solution.

But not enough clubs thought so. Corrigan soldiered on with races all over the north as well as at New Brighton and Addington. One of the most innovative clubs was Bay Of Plenty, an early convert to mobiles on its grass track where it was the first in the northern zone to have grass mobiles.

Beside the handicapping system there were other pressures on industry leaders to be fair. For one the gates were not fast enough on quickest all weather tracks like Addington even though Corrigan ran over 200 races without a false start. For another they would obviously cut the size of the fields in an era when having 18 horses in a race was considered great business.

For a third, old school horsemen who prided themselves on getting a horse away from the stand, feared one of their advantages were under threat. Corrigan couldn’t get hold of any big V8’s in a time of shortage of overseas funds; couldn’t set up a commercially viable operation with the Trotting Conference and ultimately gave up.

But in the 1960’s when horsemen realised that faster times were important to capture the growing US trade there was a change of attitude and support from the Auckland club and others pressured places like Addington to follow suit. There was also the small fact that punters felt they got a fairer go from the moving start. 

Even today some trainers are critics of the mobile and it does bring its own set of preferences. But watching some standing starts tells how hard it is to expand our betting numbers.

Alex Corrigan, a former trainer (Worthy Queen) and a leading northern administrator as his father had been,  lived to see mobiles add a thrilling dimension to top class racing and add confidence to punters pockets. 

Unhappily being right was his only financial  reward for being ahead of his time.

********



6 A NEW ZEALAND “WORLD FIRST” NEVER HEARD OF AGAIN ?

AT West Melton in January 1979 was born a foal unique in this country. He was claimed to be the first racehorse in the world bred by embryo transplant.

It was a triumph for NZ Transplant Breeders Inc but not so much a good result for the colt who was officially by Gerry Mir from a Thurber Frost mare called Compliment.

He was filed away in a special reigster though given an official and apt name of Historic Mirmir.

He was never inspected or branded, regarded more as either a weird orphan or a threat to our entire breeding industry depending on who you talked to.

He did well because he lived for more than 20 years even though he was actually “carried”by a 24 year old “foster”” mare in who was transplanted the youngster’s embryo from Compliment at an early stage. These days experts prefer foster mares 4 to 10 years old, so little Historic Mirmur and his “mother”Robyn’s Choice (Baffelan) did a great job.

Trouble was they were before their time. Well, well before their time.

Transplanting embryo’s was first done in England (with rabbits of all things!) in the 19th century and the first with horses (not racers) in Japan in the 1960’s and interest quickened in America and Europe especially in the standardbred field.

Think of it. A mare could be put in foal and continue racing! Even better she could have more than one foal in a season just like a stallion can sire multiple foals. What’s not to like ?

Plenty.

Breeders, panicking over now rather ridiculous claims that the Broodmare of the Year could produce multiple foals for the same yearling sales and dominate the market demanded a ban. Others claimed it was just unnatural and shouldn’t allowed on that basis (never mind AI-that’s different!)

It took a lot of wrangling through the Trotting Conference to get permission for Historic Mirmir to join us and he and his promoters were left in limbo unable to register the colt

History teaches that nearly every modern to standardbred racing and breeding is initially banned !

Fast forward to 1982 when permission was given for two mares to have eggs transferred to foster mares. Mindanao was 17 and had not had a foal for 12 years. Craven, dam of Geffin, Dupreez etc was 20 and had not had a foal for five years. Mindanao left a colt Thursday’s Child for Dr Harry Crofts which died at 7 and was never trained. There was no return for Craven.

Mindanao left another foal, presumably through the same process the following year but it was never registered.

Arguments went back and forth until the late 1980’;s when ET horses were permitted to race if not to breed.

One of the first high profile ET foals was Berkleigh Square foaled in 1989 and from Armalight as the donor mare by Vance Hanover. Berkleigh Square, owned by Brent Smith and Brian West’s Yonkers Breeding and Up Tempo Breeding , had a few races without success but at stud herself left London Pride a 1.51.6 miler in the US. Her only filly Arma Nightingale, Australian owned, won a race and has been a fair producer. She is now with Alabar and being bred to Always B Miki

In America there had been similar reaction to here and included claims, still made in some quarters, that the foal ‘s development could be influenced by the host mare. Certain yearling sale prices in America were lower for ET stock and results by and large were moderate.

However the decision to allow Quarter horses bred by ET to be treated just like any other horse pushed the standardbred code harder toward acceptance.

In thoroughbreds, where breeding interests rule the roost even more so than in harness, it has never been accepted.

However a Canadian filly, Invitro, changed a lot of thinking after being foaled in 2000. She went on to win over $3m and made the Canadian Hall of Fame. These days hardly anyone notices that track stars like Dream About Me and Self Assured were born though ET. The procedure is so refined from its earlier times as to be chalk and cheese.

The procedure adds valuable years to valuable mares and can allow mares to continue racing though foals bred from such mares do not appear to have an equal record compared to full time mares. The technique is also a saviour for mares like Self Assured’s dam Star of Venus who would otherwise not be able to carry embryos the full term.

Historic Mirmir seems a blip on history but he has a little first all of his own

5 THE FIRST NZ FREE FOR ALL-ADDINGTON’S FIRST MOBILE-IS BEST FORGOTTEN AS A FARCE

It was two admirable decisions, but both went horribly wrong. In 1914 at a time when trotting was probably never more popular in spite of some modern day records, the Metropolitan Trotting Club decided to introduce a New Zealand Free for All, which 105 years later is still going. It also decided on a moving start, something also still seen on Show Day.

But not like the first one.

There were no mobile gates then and no standing starts. The handicapping was done using time penalties with a huge clockface to tell drivers when they could go and they were well on the move by then (sometimes too much before then). Up until then, at Addington, there had been no feature Free for Alls.

Actually the New Brighton Club, so often the innovator in our trotting history, held the first moving start free for all in this country and that was many months before the Addington venture. Long enough for people to hopefully forget what a shambles it had been.

The first NZ Free for All soon reminded them. The race was over in the first few strides through incompetent starting and the horse most affected was the public idol Randle McDonnell’s Emmeline from Ashburton , holder of Australasian sprint records and considered far too good for any of her six rivals from a moving start.

If she had got a moving start. Or at least a fair one.

While the idea was for all the horses to be roughly in a line when “Go”was called preparation was sloppy. Only three of the horses were on the right mark and one broke leaving the winner Eccentric clear. art they got from the “mobile”. Meanwhile Emmeline was about 50m away and had no chance flying home for a minor placing. The crowd got into an ugly mood.

To be fair to the starter he had made several attempts to get the horses (there were only seven) into a semblance of a line but a combination of inexperience and a dash of “gamesmanship” meant a loss of control. After a long long time he gave up and said go.

On return to scale there was a fiery demonstration “unlikely to be forgotten by the many thousands present” over the start and threats were made to Mr Tompkins the starter who had taken over the role from his employer, Harry Reynolds earlier that year because the latter’s powers were failing him. Then as now punters liked a run for their money. It rated one of the biggest demonstrations in the track’s history. So much for “mobiles”

The winner, Eccentric, a speedy specialist in 2000m races but one of the luckier Free for All Winners, was virtually uncatchable given the start and his speed.

Amazingly Emmeline almost did it. Still 20 lengths off the flying Eccentric at the home turn she got within a length of him- 12 lengths clear of the third horse.

The problem was Addington wanted to follow the Australians into moving start free for alls but hadn’t done the homework.

In Australia who had more experience in such matters everything revolved around the “pole horse”who dictated the speed in the run up (within reason) and the other horses were expected to get into line with him. This was under the direction of a starter with a loud hailer who could halt the race if the line was too ragged. Addington had a more “she’ll be right”attitude and paid a hefty price. Although the public wanted free for all racing they wanted a fair fight.

The following year Addington made the decision that mile races in August would be from standing starts which, oddly looking back, came along after moving starts. They worked-but again it was thanks to the Australians.

But that is another story.

4 SPREADERS -POLES-PRICKERS AND SHORTENERS

Some much easier to track with certainty than the other, partly because of technical improvements over many years.

Hopple shorteners were first used in New Zealand at the 1968 Inter Dominions in Auckland -and yes, of course they were immediately banned!

Now it is a case of what would we do without them -even in mobiles.

Pins in hopples to shorten them at the start and then be released by the driver once the horse was under way seems to have been a purely Australian invention since there was no necessity for them in moving start races as in Europe and the United States.

Dick Benger the Australian trainer of Lord Setay at the 1968 Inter Doms was the first to bring shorteners to this country and had apparently developed them for Lord Setay who could be erratic at the start.

However chief stipe Len Butterfield took a dim view of the innovation and banned them forthwith. Dick responded by saying he wasn’t coming back here again. Somebody must have also told Lord Setay.

In the second heat, Lord Setay bounded at the start as usual but without the shorteners leapt up and crashed to the ground throwing Benger from the cart.

The furious horseman made representations to the Inter Dominion officials and they agreed to allow the shorteners for the rest of the carnival.

They were still banned here after that but their obvious usefulness soon meant they were approved and have been with us ever since.

Spreaders are less easy to define because their design varied considerably over the years. However the first time they were used in New Zealand was by Dave Price in 1905 on a horse called Royalwood.

Price had brought the spreaders back from the United States specifically for Royalwood a notable performer but a chronic knee knocker.

The design of spreaders then were markedly different from today’s style.

It consisted of a light steel spring attached to the either the knee or the hoof and then to the sulky shaft. Just below the shaft was usually a pulley to give the spring added weight. The spring’s job was to pull the leg outward and so avoid hitting the opposite knee during a race.

This style of spreader was used for many years. But there were problems because the gear outside the shaft could become tangled with other runners. Ultimately they were banned in Australia.

The modern spreader was developed by Ken Shand an Australian and known as KA spreaders. They first appeared in Victoria, Shand then being based in Bendigo,They used a principle developed in the United States in an earlier era when leather straps were put around the legs to keep them apart instead of the springs. Shand used rubber “hopples”type instead of the leather and they were more effective as a result. They were also known by a very similar principal called Guiders.

Shand ultimately went to America and sold his spreaders and other gear from a shop in New Jersey. The spreaders were used by some leading American trainers but almost always in training to give knee knockers renewed confidence. Several spoke highly of the innovation.

Who actually used the spreaders first here is not easy to establish but Jack Smolenski is a leading candidate. He brought some back from an Australian Inter Dominion (Arapaho) and was using them on Trevino in 1973. George Noble was another early user.

The reputation of the spreaders was made by the grand old pacer Double Agent a bad knee knocker who used them when Vic Frost was training him and later with beach trainer Joe Ilsey. The amazing old horse pushed Popular Alm to a national mile record of 1.55.9 in one Miracle Mile (parked on attack all the way) and winning the race himself finally two years later as a 12 year old !

Critics point to the few genuine top liners since who have been spreader wearers but All Stars have had two notable performers over the years use them in Sharp and Telford and Heaven Rocks and several other top class pacers have used them from time to time. They are more commonly used in training as many of our fastest pacers “go close”to a knee though not needing help on raceday. This argument claims, probably correctly, that at the very top level the spreaders can take a slight toll on race speed.

POLES and Prickers were popular from the early days of sulky racing everything from bamboo poles to the popular billiard cues being used to persuade horses to run straight as well as primitive and often cruel “prickers” of many types were used as well. The change from saddle to sulky racing meant new techniques being employed.

The modern racing aluminium pole was brought back from the United States by returning New Zealand trainers after the International Series at Yonkers in the early 1960’s.

Naturally there was controversy. Typical was a high profile birdcage confrontation between Cecil Devine and stipe Len Butterfield at Addington when the master trainer presented Teryman with a pole and a burr pricker. Butterfield insisted it was unapproved gear and must be removed. It was on the day but later approved. Clashes between those two gentleman were almost legendary in that era.

Ironically enough in the late 1970’s when Popular Alm was hogging the headlines at the next Auckland Inter Dominion with his inability to get round the right handed bends, trainer Vinny Knight, that pressman’s dream asked for permission to use two bamboo poles on the horse to balance him on the bends. Apparently he had used them at home. Well, it made a headline. It was never going to fly and Popular Alm only lost the final to Gammalite when in spite of being urged into the final turn by Vinny in the hope of retaining his lead advantage, he lost some impetus and Gammalite ran him down

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3 SULKIES

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The racing sulky has gone through many changes over the years though none more dramatic that the first using bicycle sized wheels and tubed tires in the 1890’s. The first sulkies in New Zealand were usually four wheeled “lightweight wagons” then two wheeled versions before the arrival of the bicycle wheel in 1890 changed the harness world.

Most of the records set until that time were made with riders in the saddle but that era, while it lingered on, was soon on the wane.

Photo 1) The forerunner of the modern sulky was this big wheeled effort fro the 1870-85 period. The driver’s position is quite modern in outline but look at those wheels ! The big problem was on the corners where the rather rustic technology tended to fall apart. That was one reason big tracks were popular in that era.

Photo 2) A bicycle wheel sulky with Prince Imperial and Dave Price in the mid 1890’s at Ashburton. The bicycle wheel gained traction about 1890 but the height of the driver remained the same for many years afterward as airstreaming was not as important as close control. But the long stays, vulnerable wheels, and width of the cart on our small tracks caused problems.

At Auckland meetings in the 1890’s horses with cycle wheel carts were handicapped an extra 6 seconds which at least showed their effectiveness. The world mile record dropped by five seconds when the smaller wheels were introduced to America which if you look at photo 1 is not surprising.

photo 3 is the first NZ Cup winner Monte Carlo with Bert Edwards in the sulky -and a long way up in the air ! It put a lot of strain on the construction. Edwards was the first driver to use a bike wheeled sulky in New Zealand in Auckland in 1894 about a year after they arrived in Australia. The importation of American Frazier carts, then the industry leader, to Sydney in 1890 accelerated the local design. Several bicycle manufacturers in this country made carts and wheels for racing and experimented with different designs including single shaft and three wheeled carts!

Photo 4 is of the magnificent pacer,Ribbonwood and Dave Price about 1903 (before Monte Carlo’s win) after Price had made a trip to America where he bought Norice. This is the design of the American speed cart of the era. Note the angle of the shaft. Price always placed the shafts in line with the horse’s head so that the driver’s weight would be in the correct position after of the axle. Compare his shafts with those on Monte Carlo.This was considered to be worth two seconds to any horse and Ribbonwood certainly proved the point. Also note that now slipstreaming is a big factor and drivers were starting to sit much lower behind the horse.

Curiously, in Australasia, the race carts we were mostly familiar with for over 50 years were based on the “jogger”or training carts used in America. These were designed there with long shafts so the driver could observe more of a horse’s action in training. However on our often tight and rough tracks often with roughly prepared horses the American speed cart had real disadvantages.

One was its tendency to slide under a horse rearing with unpredictable results for the driver’s health and if a horse chose to defecate during a race the smartest of outfits would return in a sorry condition ! It was also too wide for smaller tracks in big fields a special problem in Australia where regulations on the width of carts dates back to the 1890’s. America generally did not have field sizes anywhere near the ones here.

Photos 3 and 4 show the development of cart design here. The young trotter on the left Young Blake won the Trotting Stakes of 1923 in a longer shafted cart. He was trained by Dave Price’s brother and note how the shaft still points high. The other photo is of the great Globe Derby in a typical Australian cart in around the same era. The tight Australian tracks, some only 600m round (as was Lancaster Park in Christchurch before Addington was developed) made the speed sulky somewhat unpredictable. Canadian tracks also tended toward longer carts in this era.

Photo 7The New Zealand Cup winner of 1910 Wildwood Junior driven by Willie Kerr a pioneer of race carts along with the Edwards boys. The driver is still close and his weight is behind the “axle” but quite low and shielded from the wind though not as low as Price and Ribbonwood with the American cart,

Photo 8 The end of an era: the visiting race team of John Buckland from Australia at Riccarton or Plumpton Park about 1900. The cart second from left appears to be modified or a raceday cart. Apart from anything else this is a superb piece of photography given the technology available at the time and the manners also a tribute to the horse’s trainer in New Zealand, Claude Piper.

While no major breakthroughs were recorded over the years many detail improvements were made to both carts and wheels which commonly collapsed in the early days. Tubed tyres were the first progression, different wheels (size and content) were tried and covered wheels were a major breakthrough in later times though first demonstrated early in the 20th century. But they added weight. Steel carts were first built in the same era but were to become much more relevant in more modern times through sulkies such as the Challenger which were used widely in NZ and also in Australia. The hickory shafted Bryant sulkies built in Christchurch from the late 19th century were considered the ultimate in wooden cart construction for Australasia. Their long and distinguished service was a tribute to their craftsmanship

Photo 9 Many good judges believed that this horse, Indianapolis (2.00.8) should have been our first sub 2 minute miler and some of the best informed said it was because an American speed sulky was not used in his record attempts. His connections stuck with the local version of the “speed cart” in his most serious attempts on the grounds that his immense stride could not handle the American speed cart (if there was one around) without extensive practice. The local short hitched cart did not suit his long stride and was not as wide as the American designs that would have solved the problem.Since even the critics considered the shorter carts were two seconds faster it was a critical decision. Here is Indianapolis with his normal (Bryant) cart as in general use then and in which he set many records over all distances.

Photo 10 is Vodka the first New Zealand trained horse to win in the United States seen posting a victory there. Vodka was a regular breaker in his NZ races as his long stride made finding the right cart difficult. As can be seen though he readily adapted to the much shorter American speed cart

Photo 11 One of the reasons the locals loved long shafted carts. When a horse turned on a circus act like this drama for the driver was less likely than with a short cart. Rearing strap anyone ?

Photos 12/13 Variations on a theme; Cecil Devine, who always favoured a shorter -shafted or shorter coupled cart than most, ( it cost him an Interdominion Final) is with Lord Module on the left. Compare the driving position with the long shaft cart of Delightful Lady of the same era. Devine adopted his position not necessarily using special carts but hitching his short shafters further forward as can be seen here. Pointing high as Dave Price had done 80 yers before

Photo 14 One of the early signs of revolutionary carts was the famous Single Shaft sulky designed by Joe King in the early 1970’s. Nearly every horse raced in the cart improved its time by at least two seconds and of 174 races in which it took part it won 94. But it was controversial and in the end it was banned. Supporters said it was a concerted attack on it by leading drivers and sulky manufacturers with help from tracks where some drivers refused to nominate unless they knew how many single shafts would be in the race -and punters also wanted to know what was going on.

However the drivers critical included the man who drove the first winner in one. Narrow footrests were a problem and horses were reported to suffer stifle problems swinging on the turns of half mile tracks. They were not permitted on any leading American 800m tracks.

Drivers other concerns were horses turning around almost to face the driver in some circumstances but the main one however being that the carts made following other horses into the race more difficult because of less control over direction. The carts did not necessarily follow the horse the way two shafted sulkies did

Enterprising officials imported a few American speed carts in the 1970’s primarily for use in record attempts. Haughty Romeo used one to become a two minute three year old in Southland.

EVOLUTION REVOLUTION

The 2009 New Zealand Cup is remembered for a number of reasons but terms of sulky progression it was the most significant in a century.

Monkey King, using an American Evolution cart, won the race after permission to use it only being granted that week after some design changes.

Between the Single Shaft and the Evolution there had been many attempts in America to improve sulkies through use of different materials, was designed removing as much equipment as they dared (often with poor results) and one of them the Super Sulky when banned by the USTA sparked a legal battle that went to national courts after its makers accused the body of being influenced by rivals. The then dominant Jerald sulky manufacturers in particular were under fire but found innocent of any wrongdoing.

The Modified Sulky was another leader in the battle to run faster times,

The all steel Evolution followed the AdvantEdge 6.3 the original “öffset”” ( asymmetrical )design meaning that while older carts were designed for straight line performance the Evolution was designed to have a bias. The centre of the horse line did not always match the centre of the cart (offset) as traditional sulkies had.

The offset concept actually originated in Australia where it was promoted as an advantage on the smaller tracks. In America pioneer Tom Harmer was the subject of threats to strike by other drivers when the cart was introduced which probably told a story in itself. He patented the Evolution in 2003. When the design approval reached New Zealand (chiefly through the promotion of the connections of Monkey King) drivers liked the comfort of the “bikes”and their ability to help horses roll around bends.

Critics maintain that the carts show a further bias toward on pace runners and their width told against back runners. Certainly the pattern of racing changed with the “Evolution riders” such as Dexter Dunn

The carts are heavy compared to the old hickory shafted sulkies but that is offset by their balance and freedom.

Terror to Love won his first New Zealand Cup in a Bryant sulky but a wooden cart has not won one since.

The Evolution spawned a series of new designs of which the UFO and the Spyder are probably best known here.

Mark currently uses one local version of the designs called the Pegasus which has an impressive record in major races. Designed and built by Garry Roberts it has expansive use of the traditional hickory shaped to the offset design. It was approved for use in 2016 and had Lazarus as its star promoter later

“We both like them “Mark said””They seem more comfortable on our tracks because of the wood used in their construction”

However Mark has always a supporter of the Challenger operation (an Australasian enterprise) and the Challenger Viper speed bike was associated also with Lazarus including in his first NZ Cup win

Challenger sulkies, whose lightweight steel construction had essentially replaced wooden sulkies for many stables because of their balance and durability well before speed carts arrived has remained very competitive in the market.

The Evolution carbon wheels were ultimately banned in Australasia where conditions can be more testing and the limits on the angle of offset are much stricter here because of track differences compared to North America.

Whether one design is better than another is an argument about sulkies which has raged for 140 years. Many ridiculed the “bike”sulky and around the turn of the 20th century an attempt was made to bring back the “waggons”of a previous era claiming they were as fast as the carts. But the proof of the pudding was in the eating but the Bryant and later the Challenger had proved the most popular in their fields until the advent of the Evolution. Now it still seems to be a matter of opinion.

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2. HOPPLES

The introduction of hopples meant New Zealand joined the the international rage against them.

You may think there is a lot of controversy in racing and trotting these days but it is as meek as a kitten compared to the “good old days”when arguments over breeding and racing could lead to fisticuffs, vicious letters to editors who seemed relaxed about the laws of libel, and even life bannings.

One of the most divisive developments was over the introduction of hopples and no wonder. Ultimately hopples changed the entire face of harness racing.

At the time of their first introduction trotters were the elite of the game and pacers regarded as second rate-horses poorer people used as road transport in saddle only because they couldn’t afford to buy a good trotter and a sulky to go with it

The trotter enthusiasts were much like Christ’s disciples, spreading the word, promoting the ever increasing times, waxing lyrical about the beautiful squared trotter. Some of those disciples are still prominent today

To say that they were increasingly angry about trotters being turned into pacers with the use of hopples, and the gradual but inevitable growth in a pacing breed was an understatement. This even though an early standardbred heroine had been the pacer. Pocohantas

The influential Kentucky Horse Association banned hopples altogether until 1905 and at one stage trotting interests got it passed at the American Horse Association that they be banned altogether. But the tide was turning and it was never made into law,

John Browning of Indianna is generally credited with “inventing” hopples though he was not the first to have a set professionally made. “Hobbles”were always in use just for different reasons mostly restrictive.

The thing was that Browning didn’t develop them for horses to pace either. In fact he designed them for trotters -to help them gait better. His version was effectively what we now call half- hopples. Ironic indeed.

Indianna was an area where old pacing breeds were plentiful as saddle horses and his idea was actually to convert them to trotters. Then some unknown person reasoned you could use the same thinking to help trotting bred horses pace. He may not have wanted anyone to know his name of course-he might have ended up with a price on his head!

Other factors played into the hands of the pacers as well. One of the most important was the rise of 800m tracks the public preferred where trotters could not get around the bends at the same pace as horses with the “Indianna Pants” on them. This was only underlined by the arrival of small wheeled sulkies. And in racing everyone wants a winner especially the betting public who started spending more on the pacing races because they were faster and more reliable. Just not accepted by the purist.

Hopples were brought to Australia in 1882 when Alec White, a first class American horseman, brought out some early stallions. But pacers in Australia and New Zealand were virtually unknown then and they did not gain much traction. It was the same in Europe and there a ban on hoppled pacers remains to this day,

In New Zealand they were first used as far as is known in 1896 in a race at the old Plumpton Park racing complex in Sockburn on a horse called Little Willie trained by Dave Price at Riccarton (by coincidence the first hopple wearer in Australia was called Plain Bill !). It was recorded at that time that 80 per cent of Price’s team wore the hopples he had seen in Australia while campaigning a team there and brought back here.

Some years later Price prepared the pacer Ribbonwood to beat the Australasian trotting champion Fritz in a memorable series that first set Addington alight with crowds numbering 10,000. Ribbonwood was a good free legged pacer but Price had hopples on him for the contest-just in case. He easily beat the out of sorts Australian trotter and the pacing gait took another step forward

These days free legged pacers are a novelty and where they once held all the records now not one. Not even Robalan the most famous of the modern free legged horse here managed that.

For over 30 years however hopples were the victim of invective, bias, anger and insult, dismissed by opponents as “disfigurements of a noble breed”. John Rowe, of Rowe Cup fame, publicly attacked them as president of the New Zealand Trotting Association. Opposition to them in Australia rose to fever pitch.Where in 1988 there had been no races at all just for pacers here, by 1908 things had changed so dramatically Rowe and his team had to bring in a national rule that there had to be two trotting races on every programme -just to help the breed survive.

Here is an extract from a New Zealand paper attacking the Trotting Association for not doing more to reduce the number of pacers in favour of trotters

“…instead of the trotter advancing in favour with the public as a good utility horse the opposite will occur especially if owners are encouraged to continue to race the freaks called pacers that have to be geared up with straps, shinpads, speedcut boots and shod with shoes that look like different letters of the alphabet and with a gait quite unsuited to utility work. “

The pacers, scorned though they may have been (though not by trainers whose work was made easier) were here to stay and in spite of the justified reactions of the many fans of the stylish and durable straight out trotter, so it has remained more than a century later.

BACK TO NEWS (OR READ MORE FIRSTS BELOW)

1 Where was the first meeting by a trotting club held in New Zealand?

The answer is Ashburton but for some reason nobody credited it for the feat and promptly forgot it ever took place.

For most years since Wanganui was reported and regarded as the “cradle”of New Zealand trotting holding a an all trotting meeting in 1881 and it was vigorously promoted by journalists who had affinity to that district. Not that many disagreed strongly but naturally there were a few candidates for the honour, especially Canterbury. But they all failed the date test (the first all trotting meeting in Canterbury known then was in 1884).

There was also the fact that the coming of trotting was gradual and actually went back to the 1860’s but on an informal or piecemeal basis. The Otago galloping clubs usually put up good stakes for trotting races but they were more of a novelty attraction.

Yet the Ashburton meeting in December 1880 was well publicised.

A number of committee meetings were reported. A Starter, Judge, Treasurer, Secretary and Clerk of the course were all appointed.

Some of the events were a little odd- a Buggy race over 6400m open to any horse pulling a four wheeled vehicle and won by Brandy by a mere 200m. This was seen by observers as an encouragement to local farmers to take part in the events instead of trying to beat the “stars”-horses who ran laughable times

But there was a Maiden Trot won by prominent local sportsman Octavius Digby with Bijou Physick while Firefly won the Maiden Harness (any 2 wheeled vehicle) in which the third placed Donald, driven by John Wilkies “carried a very heavy vehicle”and might otherwise had prevaled. Firefly also the feature ,the Champion Handcap owned by William Campion. An interesting aspect was that the handicapping was by yards, which would become the official system until about 1916.

The attendance was disappointing and the “cart park”hoped to raise funds was ignored by the public who parked on a reserve nearby. Still, the committee hoped to run a meeting every two months.

It was not able to. In fact it never ran another meeting again. Nearly a decade later a second club (the present one) was formed and later became for some time the leading club in New Zealand.

What became of its predecessor and why it never gained its rightful place in trotting history remains something of a mystery.