NOTES AND COMMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 74, 29 March 1933, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

(BY "RANGATIRA.")

ONCE A "BOOM" HORSE

' AGA KHAN MAKING GOOD

HIS EXCELLENT LINES

Last season in the north there was a 'boom" horse who investors in many parts understood was worth being with whenever he was' stepped out. He was produced at the Takapuna Meeting, backed, and beaten, into third place. Through the autumn subsequently he was wten accepted for, but ho did not race again till the.Te Kuiti Meeting in April, when, made a hot favourite for the Maiden Handicap, he duly came off. _ The horse was Aga Khan, a champion in the making at his home Brack at Te Rapa, ; but reputed a very bad doer when taken travelling. It was'because he refused point blank to feed properly when away from home that he could be raced so seldom. It does not look yet as if he always does well when touring, but he has undoubtedly settled down a lot during the last six months or so, and he is a gelding who may now go on to do all the things that he has promised in his work. Asa. Khan, who is by Chief Ruler, was bred ty Mr. L. A. Hall, and was sold as an e^rly three-year-old when still unraced to Mr. H. Or. Gemmel],' who bought him at the same time as -3 purchased his dam, Lugano; who had missed to General Latour, and whom he had stinted to Lackham, another service that was to miss. CHESTNUT'S CAREER. Mr. Gemmell saw that Aga Khan looked a good racing proposition, and left him with 11. J. Carroll to prepare at Te Eapa. He had a race on his home course in the spring,' then did not .reappear till the occasion on which he ran third at Takapuna. He subsequently attended several meetings, but was not produced again until the Te'Kuiti Meeting, when he scraped home by a neck in. a rather moderate field. One more outing in heavy going at Te Eapa in May-, completed his first Eeason. ■ After the Waikato Meeting he was sold by Mr. Gemmell- to the Hawera trainer, C. Jackson, and he was transferred to TaranakL. pastures. He had his first race in Jackson's colours at the Taranaki Hunt Meeting, when he ran unplaced in an event won by Glen vane. His next start was at Wanganui in September, and. after running second to Garipat, had the race awarded him the next day when it was prpved that Ganpat was not eligible to compete as a hack. A visit to Trentham followed, but he did" not do too .well, pnd was not produced. He then went down to Riccarton for the New Zealand Cup Sleeting, and he was most unlucky in the two appearances he made, being left and finishing fast into fourth place in both the Linwbod Handicap (won by Worship) and the Randolf Handicap (won by Shamfight). He was unplaced over a mile and a distance at Feilding, then was taken north for the Auckland Summer Meeting, where he won the Fergusson Handicap, one mile, and ran second to; Master Brierly in the Grey Handicap, one mile, in the couple of starts he had. OCCASIONAL PRODUCTIONS. Since the. Auckland Meeting he has been only occasionally produced. At the Egmont Meeting he was very unlucky to have to share the Nolan Handicap honours with Tentcall. Eminent, then very fit, was the only, horse capable of beating him in the Taranaki Cup. His third outing since the holidays was in the Prince of Wales Handicap at -the Manawatu Meeting last Wednesday, and he led from end to end to score attractively after beating off several challenges in the. home run. ... ..." His Manawatu win was evidently well anticipated by his connections, for he was backed down to second favourite on the win machine.. For some weeks past his work at Hawera; had been of a high order. It would certainly look as if he has now learned to settle -town away from home with the experience he h been having, and better races may shortly, be coming his way, for he is unquestionably brilliant. Probably his next racing will be at Ellerslie at Easter. Though he has already won five races, he is still eligible to" run in hack class, but another win in open or good hack company would remove him. His' record to date is as follows:— Starts. Wins; Stakes, At 3 years 4 1 60 At 4 years .' 10 . 4 489/2 . Totals 14 5 5529V4 The five firsts have been worth £433 10s. SIR MODRED FAMILY. . Aga Khan is descended from one of the best early families in the ..New Zealand Stud Book, his fifth dam being no other than the Cambuscan mare Idalia, who was imported from England in 1870, and was one of the most successful mares the Middle^Park Stud ever had. ' ' Among Idalia's progeny were .Sir Modred, Betrayer, Idalium, Cheviot, and July to Traducer, Liverpool to King \of Clubs, Enid, Ravenswing (dam of Ich Dien), Middle Park, and Mount Ida to Apremont, Cypriote (fourth dam of Aga Khan) and Eros to St. George, and Sir Lancelot to Dreadnought. • ■ These offspring of Idalia brought some the earliest fame to New Zealand as a \mrsery for thoroughbreds unexcelled anywhere in the world. Sir Modred was a splendid racehorse, and he was one of the most handsome ever bred in these parts. He won the New Zealand Derby and the A.J.C. Metropolitan in the hollowest fashion, arid afterwards was exported to the Del Paso Stud in California. Betrayer (■small but gopd) and Cheviot also won the New Zealand Derby. Idaliu.a and Cheviot were both exported t6 California, the latter siring Rey- el Santa Anita, winner of the 1894 American Derby. Lugano, the, dam of Aga Khan, is a 1918 chestnut mare by Sunny Lake from St. Sophia, by Menschikoff (son of Step-, niak), from Mauveen, by Tostig (son of Edward the . Confessor) from Cypriote. One of the best performers in this line in fairly recent years was Lugano's halfbrother, Kilmoon, who not only deadheated as a four-year-old with Oratresa in the 1920 Wellington "Cup, b-' also as a three-year-old won the Wellington' Handicap in the spring, then rent on to run second .to Gloaming in. both the New Zealand and the Great Northern Derbies. Sunlit, a full-sister to Lugano, was a muchraced mare in the Far South, who was several times successful in moderate class. Lugano herself had only one start, at Wauganui as a four-year-old, before being put to the stud. The first of Lugano's progeny, bred by Mr. P. F. Farnworth, was The Bailiff, by Warplane, who won races from T. H. Gillett's etaWe at Riccarton, but was generally di?appointing. He was responsible for a big dividend at one New Zealand Cup Meeting. The next of the foals, by Tonbridge and named Viaduct, was of no account. Mr. A. Hall then obtained the mare^ and she produced Agai Khan to Chief Ruler in 1928. Diagano, to Diacquenod, came the next year, and since she has missed to General Latour and Lackham. During the present season she was again ?ent to Lackham. She is now owned by Mr. H. G. Gemmell, who bought her along with Aga Khan nearly three years ago.