TROTTING Apmat Had Inauspicious Start In Life

Press, Volume C, Issue 29515, 17 May 1961, Page 6

TROTTING Apmat Had Inauspicious Start In Life

No horse could have had a more inauspicious start in life than Apmat, which has made a tremendous impact on trotting in the United States as a result of wins in the International Pace and the Good Time Pace. These two races are the first legs of an international pacing series, which will end at Yonkers Raceway, New York, on Friday (New Zealand time) with the running of the National Championship Pace. Apmat is described by the Sydney journalist. Bill Whittaker, as the most “fair dinkum” Australian horse to race outside his home country.

Apmat is six generations Australian on both sides of his pedigree. He cost only one shilling to breed and he was foaled in 1952 among a flock of sheep in anything but a lush paddock at the Homebush abattoirs. His sire, Wirrason, was blind. A year or two earlier M. F. Anderson, a prominent Sydney galloping trainer, bought Wirrason for only a shilling to save the blind stallion from being slaughtered at a knackery. Anderson, whose wife races Apmat, paid the shilling to make the sale legal because he had been offered Wirrason for nothing. This would all seem strange to Americans, who spend millions of dollars trying to produce horses with Apmat’s remarkable speed and durability. Studmasters in Australia and New Zealand in the postwar years have spent large sums on the importation of stallions representing the best winning lines in the United States. As a result. moSf of the pacers and trotters racing in Australia and New'Zealand carry a big percentage of American blood—but not Apmat. ’ Apmat, which FB from Anderson’s mare Peak Girl, was reared at the Castle Hill stables of his present trainer. H. R Aliev. At the time of his preparation for racing, he was sent to the former New Zealand trainer. E. N Kennerley, who settled in Australia about 1953. Kennerley is at present in the United States with his own trotter. Gay Vivienne. Unpredictable Apmat showed that he had great speed, but he was an unnredictable “rebel.” Kennerley was able to win only two minor races with him before he was transferred back to Alley at the end of his three-year-old season Harold Park stewards had banned Apmat because of his wayward behaviour at i the barrier. | Alley quickly disciplined i the gelding and the combin- ■ ation soon began to win I races. Before his departure : for America. Anmat had won more than £28.000. With the rich prizes offering in America, Apmat could advance his earnings to beyond £lOO.OOO before returning to Australia. Hfs two wins have been worth 56,400 dollars. The winner’s share of the National Championship Pace

this week will be 25.000 dollars. Apmat will only have to race up to his previous form at Yonkers to earn a major share of the 50,000 dollars attached to the race. In Australia he has thrived on hard racing so it is unlikely his two races to date will have taken a serious toll. Sydney racing men compared Apmat's first winning run with Phar Lap’s 1931 performance when he went to America and beat their chamoions in the Agua Caliente Stakes. Apmat’s great form against the American aristorcrats is a triumph for the colonialbred horse. For six generations. on both sides of his pedigree, there is not a trace of imported blood in his veins. Wirrason (now dead), was by Wirra Walla, by Walla Walla, which was a son of Globe Derby. The lastnamed was by Mambrino Derby, a son of the imported horse, Owhyee. Apmat’s dam. Peak Girl, which died earlv this year, was by Peak Hill, by Lawn Derby, a son of Robert Derby and a grandson of Globe Derby. Apmat carries a double cross of Globe Derby's blood. Globe Derby is the greatest trotting sire ever bred in Australia. He has left hundreds of top-class descendants and his name appears in the oedigree of champions both in Australia and New Zealand. Johnny Globe. Ribands. Springfield Globe, Tactician. Lawn Derby and Robert Derby are only a few of them. It is not surprising that Apmat is a champion, but it is strange that Wirrason and Girl failed to produce another horse of any note. Peak Girl had six foals and with the exception of Apmat thev did nothing of note. Wirrason was a solid pacer.

winning 19 races for the Sydney trainer-driver, F. Culbert. One of the most interesting points in Wirrason’s pedigree is that he traces to a thoroughbred sire on his dam’s side. The thoroughbred was His Reverence, which Mr Frances Foy imported from England in 1891. One of His Reverence’s daughters was Minnie, which figures as one of Wirrason’s great-grand-dams. Apmat stands about 16) hands. He is a big, looselimbed pacer. He is anything but a pampered champion. When he reached New York he settled down immediately and was not concerned at the snowbound tracks on which he was asked to work occasionally. Mrs Alley, who did not travel to America, said recently that the only time Apmat became excited was when he went out on the track to race. “He starts to kick and snort a bit then, but back at home he is absolutely imperturable,” she said. Apmat’s successes have not surprised New Zealanders. who saw him in action in the Inter-Dominion Championship series at Harold Park in 1960. He won two qualifying heats, but had to bow down to Caduceus in the Grand Final. He impressed by the manner in which he could race three and four wide, make two or three runs in a race, and then fight on to dispute the finish with speedy pacers favoured with easy runs in his races. Apmat’s successes at Yonkers confirm how unfortunate it was that he was not brought to Christchurch in February of this year to contest the Inter-Dominion Championship series. It is unlikely the New Zealand horses would have had such superiority over him as they had over the other Australian horses to race at the meeting.