CAST ASHORE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 904, 22 February 1930, Page 13

CAST ASHORE

INCIDENT OF EARLY DAYS RECALLED During a recent visit to Te Aroha “Abaydos” met a light-har-ness enthusiast whose fund of early day incidents was remarkable and for fully half an hour the veteran entertained with reminiscences of the early nineties. Among several interesting and amusing incidents, one which happened at Te Aroha away back in 1893 is worth relating. Trotting at that period was in its infancy, but there was always some one keen enough to be on the look-out for something good enough to clean up the opposition wherever races or matches (which were quite popular in those days) were arranged. There arrived, somewhat mysteriously, a flea-bitten bay gelding at Te Aroha which after wandering about the burgh unattended for a few days was impounded, and subsequently sold to Mr. B. Tanner for somewhere in the vicinity of thirty shillings. It did not take the gelding’s owner long to find out that his purchase could trot and he began to attract attention when stepping along the roads by his solid style of locomotion. Having named the trotter Sandfly, his owner decided to tackle the Auckland Cup, which in those days was run on the second day of the Christmas function. Sandfly duly went to Auckland and except for a few Te Aroha enthusiasts, no one knew much about his capabilities. In 1893 the cup was worth £4OO, run over three miles, and Sandfly, ridden by S. Tanner, was practically the outsider of the field. He won all right and his thirty-odd backers received the useful dividend of over a score. From the twinkle in the eye of the narrator, there was no need to inquire if he was on the good thing. Sandfly raced several times afterward without success, but in 1896 he won a heat at Epsom, being then owned by J. T. Winter. The following March at the

Otahuhu fixture Sandfly ran a match with D. F. Lundon’s Doctor, which he won easily. Asked where the flea-bitten gent arrived from, my informant expressed the opinion the gelding had been brought across from Australia in a sailing ship and turned adrift near Te Aroha. “Anyway,” he concluded, “we didn’t care much where he came from, but, by jove, he could trot all right.” No doubt many winners of the early days were like Sandfly, picked up dirt cheap, and had nothing to recommend them in the way of breeding, as far as their purchasers were concerned.