SILVER COAT'S ANCESTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 91, 15 October 1934, Page 6

SILVER COAT'S ANCESTRY

Since Silver Coat \yoa the McLean Stiikos and the Dominion Handicap at Wingatui recently, there has been a. good deal of discussion regarding his breeding. One statement that Patalwork, the graiidsire of Silver Coat's dam, was a halfdraught is denied by. "St. Clair" in the Dimedin "Evening Star." Patalwork, says • "St. Clair," was well known both in the hunting field and over the Eiverton steeplechase course, and if he was not thoroughbred he looked the part. As a five-year-old in 1891, and again two years later, he won the Great Western Steeplechase, and in those days, the River ton country was admitted to bo the biggest and stillest in the Dominion. For some years before being put to stud duties he was ridden by Farquhar McKay, then huntsman to the Birchwood Hounds, and occasionally by his owner, Captain James Gardner, of Birchwood Station. There have been many good horses in England, Australia, and New Zealand who have not been eligible for inclusion in the stud books, and it certainly looks as if Silver Coat is going to add to this number. There is one strong feature in his favour. All the sires known in his pedigree had plenty of the masculine character about' them. Patalwork was a sod of a very handsome thoroughbred stallion named Cloth of Gold, who stood in the South Canterbury district' for some years before going to Southland, and it is worthy of note that one of the few hunters ever shipped from the Dominion to the Old Country was a son of his. His name was Golden Grape. He was bred by Mr. John Sntton. of Thornbiiry, and he was taken Homo by a, sportsman named Mr. Armitage. who_ forty years ago was well known in the North Canterbury district.