OBITUARY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 27, 16 February 1937, Page 9

OBITUARY

MRJOHNE. THORPE Very many of the racing fratemity, especialiy among the more mature generations, will hear with profound regi'et of the d| th of the well-known Ellerslie trainer, Mr John E. Thorpe, which, in. his 68th year, occurred last Saturday after a long illness, at his home overlooking the course. Mr Thorpe may be literally said to have been associated with racehorses all his life, as both his father, John Thorpe, and his uncle, "Bob" Thorpe, were English-born xiders in the "good old days" when "Potter's Paddoek," now Alexandra Park, was Auckland' s only racecoui'se. Both, too, were later on successful trainers. Mr J. E. Thorpe himself had many of Auckland's best performers through hiB hands. Probably no other stable in New Zealand, or elsewhere indeed, ever shel-* tered two such jumping champions as Cavaliere and Record Reign, of whom it was hard even for their trainer to say which was the better. Both were winrifers, and in no mean company, under weights ranging up to 13st., and Record Reign eventually lost his life through an accident while running in a steeplechase at Auteuil, in France. Latterly Mr Thorpe was content with . a very small team and of very recent years had really nothing of outstanding merit on which to exercise his skill. Held in the highest esteem by his fellow trainers and by racing men generally, there will be widespread sympatliy with the widow and grown-up family he leaves to mourn his loss.