From Stud And Stable WIDE PUBLICITY GAINED FOR N.Z. THOROUGHBRED

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31093, 23 June 1966, Page 4

From Stud And Stable WIDE PUBLICITY GAINED FOR N.Z. THOROUGHBRED

(Specially written for "The Press" by

W. SHOOTER)

The keeper of the New Zealand Stud Book, Mr Glyn Tucker, obtained thousands of pounds worth of free publicity for the New Zealand thoroughbred industry during five days in Los Angeles recently.

Mr Tucker spent most of his time at the Hollywood Park Turf Club’s meeting where he appeared on one of the club’s radio programmes and two of its television shows. One of the television programmes on which he appeared went to all the major TV stations on the Columbia western network and was seen by about two million viewers.

Mr Tucker is visiting the United States to survey thoroughbred racing facilities there and to endeavour to have horses descended from New Zealand colonial families accepted on their pedigree credentials.

He is also going to Britain and Europe for conferences with Weatherby’s, Keepers of the General Stud Book in England, and Jean Romanet, Director-General of the French Jockey Club, which directs racing in that country. During his visit to Hollywood Park, Mr Tucker presented the winner’s sash to Hiparco, after the running of the New Zealand Racing Conference Purse, a 10,000 dollars event named in honour of bis visit. Aurelius II and Whit's Pride were second and third •nd among those unplaced ; was the former New Zealander Zinder, now raced by! Mr Vic Graber, for whom!

Cadiz won the Hollywood Gold Cup in 1963.

In an interview with Leon Rasmussen, a top American racing journalist, in the “Daily Racing Form,” Mr Tucker said the requirements of acceptance of New Zealand colonial family descendants by American racing authorities, were that they must show eight or nine crosses of pure blood and they must trace back at least a century. “But here is the additional! part which I seek to. have repealed or amended: ‘And as well, the performances of the immediate family must be such as to warrant belief in the purity of the blood.’” Discriminatory “This rider,” Tucker said, “I believe to be discriminatory. Although we have always received the finest cooperation from your Jockey Club, a sort of little Jersey

Act exists here. After all, a horse’s acceptance should depend upon the record of the pedigree, not of performance. The immediate families of some of our finest winners were comparatively ineffective runners. Therefore, I believe and I hope to convince those in authority in your country and abroad that purity of pedigree should be the sole criterion in such matters. “The era of international racing is upon us and it will not be long before New Zealand horses will be able to jet to California in 10 hours or so for stakes engagements. However, if someone’s judgment ‘sentences’ one of our horses to the status of a nonparticipant because of the lack of racing ability of the immediate family when the record shows there is no question about the purity of the blood, we must feel we are not being fairly treated. “You Americans for years suffered under the burden of the iniquitous Jersey Act. There is a similar situation existing here which we feel should be removed just as the English eventually removed the hostile Jersey Act. “After all, we’ve been breeding some excellent horses in New Zealand for many years. Ask the Australians about that! New Zealand horses have won eight of the last 10 Melbourne Cups—Australia’s premier race. We’ve done comparably well in other of their Cup races. And now that we’ve imported some precocious bloodlines, we’re beating them sprinting as well.” Beat Hyperion

Mr Tucker went on to say that of the winners traced to colonial family mares, “Foxbridge, which was obtained for around 200 guineas,- became the most influential

Mr Tucker also praised the American-bred Bourbon Prince, which has made a remarkable start as a sire in New Zealand with seven individual two-year-old winners in his first crop, including champion Prince d’Amour, and said other American stallions Beau Diable and Comte de Grasse were also expected to do well. He said New Zealand breeders were elated with the stud start of Agricola and predicted a big stud future for the latest acquisition, Oncidium. “I don’t know if I’ll succeed in what I am setting out to do on this trip, but I’ll certainly try and do something about it,” was Mr Tucker’s parting shot.

sire in Australasia. Many of his best runners were produced by colonial family mares. His get won about £900,000, which is more than the get of Hyperion. “Balloch, a half-brother to Beau Pere, did not win, and Beau Pere himself, who did well with colonial mares, was not a major winner. Balioch’s get, some out of colonial mares, won over £600,000.” Mr Tucker said, that one of the reasons he believed New Zealand horses raced so well and lasted so long, was pasturage. “We have green grass all year round, and I believe the most important years in a horse’s life are his weanling and yearling years. If they nurse a mare who is getting ideal nutrition and then get that same nutrition later on their own, they have had a proper start.” Asked if any of the mares Mr Rex Ellsworth recently bought in New Zealand belonged to colonial families, Mr Tucker said: “Yes, eight of them, but they were all accepted by the Jockey Club of New York.”