Jockey Who Won Seven Northerns

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 439, 22 August 1928, Page 10

Jockey Who Won Seven Northerns

HORSES AND RIDERS STEEPLECHASES AND STEEPLECHASERS (By PERCY JOHNSTON.) [Percy Johnston is the third of the distinguished steeplechase riders who have recorded in these columns during National Week some of their observations and experiences between the flags. His successes in what may be regarded as the “classics” of cross-country racing in the Dominion are phenomenal. He has won the Great Northern Steeplechase, four times; the Great Northern Hurdles, three times: the Grand National Steeplechase, once; the Grand National Hurdles, once; the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase, once; the Wanganui Steeplechase, twice, and the Wellington Steeplechase, three times.] I AM ash am d to say that I have kept no records of my early racing days, never imagining that anyone would be interested in my doings when they were past and gone, but I will jot down some of my memories that may be worth reading. My story will not bo in order, for the reason I have just mentioned, and my dates may be all wrong; but I know my sporting friends will not be very particular on those points. My first ride in the Grand National at Riccarton was on a mare named Jenny in 1890. The course at Riccarton in those days was quite different from the course of the present time. The field had to come it through the rails at the top of 'the straight, and jump a timber fence before tackling the water jump in front of the stand, going on through the rails again to take Cutt’s fence, which in those days was a very formidable obstacle. It consisted of a sod bank, with grass growing on the top, faced with post and rails and a ditch a foot wide, so that the horses as well as the jockeys could see where they were going—or stopping. This was a very big fence indeed. but in my experience brought about less falling than it did baulking, the ’chaser, with ordinary horse-sense, realising that if he hit the wall he would go down. The other fences were placed much as they are now, but they were much stiffer. My Chief Conceits The sod wall at the bottom of the straight had to be jumped three times; but I never had the good luck to jump it myself, though I made several attempts to do so, before it was removed, not purposely; to allow me to win in 1898 on Dummy. Freeman, ridden by Billy Clarke, won the year I came to grief on Jenny, and I still think that if I had got on the flat with Freeman I should have had a great tussle with the winner, notwithstanding Billy's wonderful horsemanship. Rhino in 1908 had just won the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase when he was sent down to Christchurch to add the laurels of the National to his distinctions, and with Tommy Jones training him and J. Redmond riding, he looked a really good thing. The day before the race Jones was attacked by what turned out to be measles, and his friends packed him into a cab and drove him to the centre of the course so that he might see how his horse won. But Dummy had won the Grand National Hurdle Race two years before, and, having ridden him in that event, I knew that if he could jump the fences he would beat anything else in the race. And with the bugbear sod wall out of the way he did jump the fences and I had another nice ride. I must confess to my North Island friends that my successes in the two big jumping races in the South are among my chief conceits. M ud- Larks The Wellington steeplechase course in the early days on the old Hutt course was a very stiff one. Ahua was sent up from Canterbury in 1890 to win the big race there, and was considered a moral for the event. But his friends had not taken his weight and the character of the fences into account. The good little fellow, carrying 12st 51b., shaped well enough for half the distance, but an unfamiliar obstacle puzzled him and the load on his back did the rest. He was a very gallant pony and if I had not had a stake in the race I liked to see him win. The last fence was a post and rail, around the bend, and only 50yds from the winning post. Dick Frewin, on Oeo, and I on Whalebone, jumped this together and finished a dead heat. We each thought the other fellow had won, and after weighing-in shook hands cordially. The previous year Orient, trained by Alf Shear sly and ridden by Alf Death, had won. The creek at the lower end of the course on that occasion was just a sheet of water and we had to gallop through this to the brush which marked the sides of the water jump, and then jump from water to water. There were 12 starters, and when we got to the brush fence we had to feel around for the jump. When discovered it was found to be about four feet deep, with no levelling off as is practised in these days. I was riding Whalebone and he, perhaps having more intelligence than I had, got out first and galloped to a dry spot about a quarter of a mile away. He allowed himself to be caught, however, and riding over the remaining fences, three stiff post-and-rails. I secured second money. Easier Courses The tendency all over the country during the last 20 or 30 years has been to reduce the size and the. strength of the fences. There is something to say on both sides of this question, but for myself I think the movement toward easier fences has gone too far. Wellington, Wanganui. Auckland and Egmont have gone a long way in this direction, probably with a view to securing larger fields, larger crowds and larger totalisator returns: but it is not for the outsider to teach these clubs what they should do. For Auckland, of course, there is to be said that the “hill,” up and down, on the far side of the course makes up to some extent for the smaller fences. Ellerslie is not an easy course for steeplechasers, taken all in all, but it gives the galloping stayer a better chance than it does the jumping stayer. Wanganui 50 years ago had fences at least equal to those at Riccarton at the same time, but to-day the task it puts before jumpers is comparatively very simple and puts a strong temptation before gallopers and immature jumpers. As for the present seat, now general in both racing and steeplechasing, it is a matter for the owners trainers and jockeys to settle betweS themselves. I understand that big owners and good sportsmen in England regard the crouch seat as the right thing, but I do not see in the English illustrated papers any such pictures of air flights by jockeys which follow every steeplechase meeting in this country. Horses and Jockeys I have been asked to say something about the merits of prominent horses and jockeys. But I have not seen all the horses and all the jockeys that should enter into this competition. Most of us like best the horse that has