Two Marfleet Colts Getting Ready For Next Royal Show

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 32, 31 August 1949, Page 5

Two Marfleet Colts Getting Ready For Next Royal Show

Two recently imported Hackney colts are being prepared for competition at the forthcoming Royal Show. These colts, the three year old chestnut, Marfleet Harlequin, and the two year old brown, Marfleet Baronet, were imported by Messrs Wright, Stephenson and Co Ltd., oh behalf of Mr C. S. Elms, of the Oakwood Hackney Stud, Timaru, and Mr Andrew Grant, of Fairlie, being selected in England last year by Mr C. E. Robertson. Both colts are impressive looking, with exceptional action, and should provide great interest for harness enthusiasts at the Royal Show. Marfleet Harlequin was shown at the National Hackney Show in England as a yearling and stood second in a very strong class. He is a colt with a very bold appearance, true Hackney character, grand substance, and in action is very spectacular.

Marfleet Baronet shows a great deal of quality. He is very symmetrical in conformation, and moves with machine-like action, and is expected to develop substance with age. Both colts are intensely bred to the father of. the Hackney breed in the great stallion . Mathias, the best sire of harness' animals the breed has yet produced, and whose dam, Ophelia, was considered to be the best Hackney mare of all time. Both colts were- bred in shire, the original home of the Hackney, in the famous stud of Mr John Partington on the outskirts of Hull. There throughout the Blitz, when this famous northern port of England was almost wiped out, John Partington carried on his' every-day business and turned to his nearby Marfleet Hackney Stud for relief and change. Since then his Hackneys have commenced again to find their way to all parts of the world and are being shown this year in Australia, South Africa, United States, and Ireland, as well as New Zealand.