UNLUCKY JOCKEY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 102, 21 July 1927, Page 6

UNLUCKY JOCKEY

COMES TO NEW ZEALAND LONG LIST OF CASUALTIES On the Tahiti bound from Sydney last week for New Zealand was Sam Fielder, until three years ago one of the leading apprentice riders in the State. He is coming over to ride for his uncle, who has settled down in the Dominion with a promising team of horses A member of one of the oldest and best-known families in the history of Australian racing, young Sam, who is still in his teens, was considered by many good judges to be a coming champion and a worthy successor to the wealth of riding talent produced by the Fielder clan. In the first few years of his apprenticeship Sam was so successful that his services were always in demand among owners and trainers, and, with the resultant opportunities, added to his natural riding ability, a promising career seemed assured. WON MANY RACES He won numerous races, including 14 at Randwick. Among the horses he was successfully associated with were Kikumon arid Irish Prince, both owned by Dick Wootton; Nygee, Impeyan and Crates. The latter is identical with the Crates now racing at the ponies, and on him Fielder won three races in as many starts. A treble at Canterbury was also one of his achievements. When Golden Voice, ridden by Jimmy Pike, was sent out an odds-on favourite in a Nursery at Randwick, and was beaten by Irish Prince, Sam Fielder rode the winner. Few jockeys are fortunate enough to escape injury altogether, but fate was particularly unkind to Sam. On one occasion he was so severely injured in a fall at Rosehill that his life was despaired of; but he recovered and returned to the saddle. His list of casualties reads more like the experience of a cross-country jockey than of one who confined his attention to the legitimate side of the game. PURSUED BY BAD LUCK Singapore was visited by him, but even there bad luck pursued him. Half the field came down in a race one day and Fielder was taken to hospital with a broken leg. Since returning to Sydney he has not been an active participant in racing, but it is unlikely that all the ability he possessed early in his career has deserted him, and with the opportunities he is sure to receive in New Zealand he may yet fulfil that early promise. It is a coincidence that Sam is a close friend of Sydney jockey Reg. Marsden, who a short while ago took a trip to America to try his luck in the saddle.