Looking Back

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 20, 16 October 1937, Page 19

Looking Back

"Hermit.")

h0rses of n0te Performances That Lingcr in the Memory RENOWN AND DAUNT

(By

When the late Hon. J. D. Ormond established the Karamu stud sompwhere about 45 years ago, he selected a number of very well-bred mares. Although some of tbem were old — and he chose as the sire to mate with them, Dreadnought, by Chester — Trafalgar, which had heen the best three-year-old of his year in Australia. The choice was a sound one fdr the stud almost iminediately began to turn out winners, and winners of important races at that. A great deai more success might have been attained but for the late Mr Oriiiond's practice of uot selling atty of his young stock, but of sending mauy of tnem to one or other of his various stations, there to be used as hacks, or kept for a season or two before being tried out on the raee tfack. . The reason for buying some mares that were fairly old was that the lato Mr Ormond particularly desired to obtain the lines of blood that these mares possessed. So it was that ho purchased. a very old imported maro idalia (who threw Sir Lancplot "to Dreadnought), as weli as a daughter, Mount Ida, by Apremont, the Daniei O'Rourke mare Martyr and her daughMontmartre, by Apremont. There cuii be no gainsaying the fact that these mares, togethef with Lyrebird. Orientale and' others, iaid the foundution of what lias been one of the inosfc successful thoroughbred breeding studs New Zealand has possessed, and although cther good ones were added from time to tirne by Australian cr Dominion purcliases, or importatious from the Old Country, not a little oi the credit for success is due to the wise selectious .wliich formed the basis of the stud's foundatioo. Ataong the many good ones sired by i Dreadnought in his earlier years at | the stud were the full brothers Daunt- i less and Daunt, both from Orientaie, j and Renown, from Lyrebird. 'l iiave nover been able to decide which was I act'ually the "best Dreadnought 1 have ! seen racing. My doubts rest iietwcen 1 Daunt and Renown. On wins alone. and the victories gained, Renown mu.si eoine first, and so I fiave placed him at the head of this article. As a two-year-old he wou the Great Nortbein FoaJ Stakes, 1899, wlule in the follou ing season he wou ihe Wangaui; Guineas, Hawke's Ruy Guineas, fsov. Zealand Derby, Auckland Railwa.v Handicap, with 8st. 111b.. for a three-year-old, the Great Northern Derbv the A.lt.C. Royal Stakes, and tlie Wellington Cup, in which race he wa.sot to carry 8at. 101b.. the hlszhesr. .

weight, I fancy, that has been carried to victory in that raco by a tbree-year-old. Daunt's important wins were fewer. but he won the Hawke's 33ay Stakes and the Wanganui Derby as a three-year-old, and the Wellington Cup as a four-year-old. But it was his victory in the Hawke's Bay Stakes which particularly impressed me. In that race he inet Gold Mcdaljist, which the astute R. J. Mason declared to be one of the fastest horses ho had tMT trained. Gotj Medallist^ a big longstriding horse, ridden by Derrett, had the inside running, wh'ile Daunt, a coxnpact small horse, riddeu by Fred Davis. was sooh alongside of him. Gold Medallist was first into the straight by a small margin, but Daunt almost imtoediately challenged liim. At first Derrett appeared to think his mount could draw away easily, and he shook Gold Medallist up,; but there was no shaking off the little bulldog, Daunt, and he was gaining-. Then the whips oaine out on both. Gold Medallist did uot fiinch, but each stride broughi Daunt a shade nearer and fifty yards from tlie post he liad got . his head in frout, and there it reinained. It had been like a race between a giant and a pigmy, und the cheers that went up from the two stands when the uumbers went up was something to be remembered ft>r a long time. Dauntless. the older full-brother to Daunt, was also a good one, and won the C.J.C. Handicap at Riccarton, and the Railway Handicap at Ellerslie, in 1896, and the C.J.C. Chailenge" Stakes in the autumn- of the same racing season.