Most Wins in NZ since 1979

[Insider 3,961]

On 22 May 2016 at 1:25 AM, gubellini said:

Flying Trix 20 wins from 120 starts. Debut at Gore on 4/2/61. Last start at Riverton on 16/4/68.

Flying Trix, now that's a blast from the past. I borrowed a full sister to Flying Trix (my first venture into breeding all those years ago) and bred a colt that never won a single race!

[rdytdy 5,343]

7 hours ago, gubellini said:

Oranmore made his debut at Awapuni on 18/9/74. He ran third ridden by Kevin Cullen. He raced six times at two winning four.His first win was in a division of the Musket Stakes at Ellerslie on 5/10/74 ridden by Kevin Cullen. Sorry I haven't got any information about the rest of his career.

Cheers Gubes. Two races he won as a 2yo were the ARC Welcome Stakes and the 75th Avondale Stakes. From what I can gather he won 7 races as a 3yo in the 1975-76 season three at Ellerslie and four at Avondale.  His last win was at Counties on 17 January 1981 beating Our Shah. His second to last was at Avondale on 4 November 1980 beating Waiheke and the previous win was at Ellerslie on 15 August 1979 beating Question Me. So that makes it 14 NZ wins we know of. So between June 1976  when he won the President's Handicap at Avondale and August 1979 there may be every chance he picked up six more to qualify. I have looked at a number of sales catalogues but no luck so far in finding any of his family going through the ring.

I made mention earlier of his clashes with Shifnal Chief and in one of the few Racing Annuals I have I found a great write up about the pair in the 1975-76 annual by John Costello. I will post it later, it is worth a read.  

   

[rdytdy 5,343]

The Sprinters. Speed To Burn by John Costello from DB Racing Annual 1975-76.

Think of crack sprinters and you usually think of Ellerslie's Railway Handicap or Trentham's Telegraph. Flying fast track speedsters, streaking over 1200m in less than 1:10, breaking 1:23 for 1400m.

Certainly two of the 1975-76 season's outstanding sprint performances fell into this category - Blue Blood's phenomenal 1:07.5 in the 1200m Telegraph Handicap and Mop's 1:22.1 in the 1400m Thibenzole Sprint at Te Rapa.

Yet to me, the most remarkable sprint race of the season was a 1200m event run at Avondale for the modest stake of $4000 and a time of 1:17.5, just ten seconds slower the Blue Blood recorded in the Telegraph. That race was the rather inappropriately named Long Handicap at the Avondale July meeting and the two fine sprinters who lifted from mediocrity to high drama were Oranmore and Shifnal Chief. 

Oranmore, a nuggety little speedster who loved to go to the front and run his rivals into the ground; Shifnal Chief, one of our very best sprinter-milers of the last decade, inclined to get back in 1200m scurries but able to turn on a blistering last 200m. Both of them at this stage were well up in the weights. And both, though ridden by apprentices to get some weight relief, were still conceding big weight advantages to their rivals.

The word "blistering" would be relative this July day. The track was too heavy to allow fast times. Under such conditions, a horse which can gallop through the deep footing at 13 to the furlong is going fast - and one which can run the last 200m in 12 is finishing brilliantly. 

Shifnal Chief's class, on top of the ground or in the heaviest going, had been well established before the 1975-76 season opened. He boasted a string of wins in the wet, a Railway Handicap under top weight and from an outside draw on a fast track. Oranmore had been a speedy two-year old in the 1974-75 season, his four wins including the ARC Welcome Stakes and the 75th Avondale Stakes. In the latter race he beat the highly regarded filly named Tudor Light. 

A three-year old Oranmore didn't waste much time showing that he could pit his speed and determination against the older sprinters and hold his own. By the time the Avondale winter meeting came around he had notched six metropolitan sprint wins, three at Avondale and the rest at Ellerslie. And he had shown, too that despite his lack of size he could carry weight. At the Auckland winter meeting he'd recorded two sprint sprint placings with Tony Williams riding him at his full book weight of 61.5 kg and 62kg.

In the President's Handicap on the opening day of the Avondale winter meeting Oranmore was weighted at 61.5kg. Owner-trainer Jim Doran put apprentice Ken Mathews up to get 2.5kgs off his back. Back even with 59 the chunky little speedster's task looked difficult. For among his rivals was that great sprinter Shifnal Chief, right back to peak form.

"The Chief" had resumed from a summer spell at Te Rapa in May and finished third behind Good Gift and Regal Tan under 62kg. Taupiri owner-trainers Ian and Jim Cameron realised that in his coming winter campaign their star would need to take advantage of apprentice allowances where he could, So, although the maximum top weight of 59kg at Rotorua on May 29 was already inviting enough, the Cameron's engaged Takanini apprentice Ray Mathers to take the mount. With his weight reduced to 56kg by the allowance Shifnal Chief looked a shot's eye, and he was. Mathers, having his first ride on "The Chief" and conscious that he could get more rides on the classy black if he acquitted himself well, had him well positioned all the way.

With Shifnal Chief, that's all you had to do. He did the rest, outfinishing his opposition comfortably. The Cameron's were happy with young mathers' showing and he had the mount again when Shifnal Chief lined up next, on the final day of the Auckland winter meeting. No maximum top weight here and in the the 1400m Visitors' Handicap. Shifnal Chief was handicapped at 63.5kg and even with Mathers aboard he still had to lump 60.5kg, the equivalent of 9.7 under the old scale.

From soon after the home turn it was a two horse race, Shifnal Chief and Cornelius, himself a grand wet-weather sprinter with 4.5kg lass than the topweight and the services of wily veteran Grenville Hughes opposed to the youthful and inexperienced Mathers.

But young Mathers did his part and Shifnal Chief, like the high-class horse he is, did his part and more. Nether horse giving an inch, both shifting ground a bit under the tremendous pressure, they slogged it out to the line. And Shifnal Chief was just too good, getting there by half a head. It was a measure of their superiority that the third horse, Regal Tan was seven lengths away.

An even more crushing display of superiority was still to come. (more to come)    

     

[rdytdy 5,343]

Can't add to original so continue here:

But first Shifnal Chief had to clash with Oranmore on the first day of the Avondale winter meeting.

This time "the Chief" had 65.5kg reduced by Mather's allowance to 62.5kg. He had to concede 3.5kg to the front running Oranmore and it seemed likely that he would have to concede him a fair start as well from the top of the straight. Though it is a big, roomy track with a long straight, Avondale seems to favour front runners. Whether or not the first part of the run home is slightly downhill, the leader on the turn often seems able to shoot to a handy break in the first 100m of the run home, and very often it is a winning break.

Oranmore, who hugs the rail like a mechanical hare, is well suited to such tactics and, having won already four races on the track, had proved himself well suited to Avondale. He sped straight to the front in the President's Handicap. Sabre Prince, who had looked on the way back to form and was himself something of an Avondale specialist, tried to keep the pressure on him making the top bend. But once they straightened Oranmore shrugged him off and shot to a commanding lead in no time. Meanwhile Shifnal Chief had got snookered on the rails well back in the field. By the time he got clear he was giving Oranmore an impossible start and he did well to grab second in the last 40 odd metres.

So the stage was set for another clash between Oranmore and Shifnal Chief in the Long Handicap on the second day. Both had risen further in the weights. Shifnal Chief was handicapped at 66kg and would carry 63kg with Mather's allowance; Oranmore handicapped at 64kg would drop to 61.5kg with Mathew's allowance.

At that level in the weights it hardly seemed a match race. Though the others were not in the same class they were receiving such big weight advantages, even with the weight allowances, that it seemed one might come up with a run good enough to overturn the topweights.

Just the same, a match race it was.  

The Cameron's, philosophical though they were about their first day defeat, had one instruction for Ray Mather; to have Shifnal Chief handier than he had been on the first day. For the rider of a horse like Oranmore there was no need for instructions, unless it was the classical old simplification: Go to the front and stay there.

So away went the field and away to the front, with that remarkable early acceleration of his, streaked Oranmore. Sabre Prince had even less chance of footing it with him this time; Shifnal Chief, as per instructions, was keeping handier in about third place but he was well astern of the flying pacemaker. And when Oranmore turned the corner and set sail for the judge, he widened his gap in dramatic fashion. From being two or three lengths clear of his nearest rival he was seven or eight lengths out in what seemed the space of barely fifty metres. The task of Shifnal Chief in closing that gap, though he was in the clear to challenge from the top of the straight, looked well nigh impossible. But horsemen don't use a very large vocabulary to their charges and evidently the Camerons had never taught Shifnal Chief the meaning of the word "impossible.'  

He set out to bridge the gap and, though Oranmore was still galloping freely in front, he gradually closed it stride by stride. Fifty metres out Shifnal Chief closed with Oranmore and it seemed he would storm past him. But then Oranmore showed his own brand of class. As "The Chief" came alongside he pulled out something extra and the two grand sprinters flashed across the line locked together. It was anybody's guess who had won.

I've become a rather better judge of the Avondale angle since the days when the camera gave the December Plate there to Gay Sovereign after I'd thought she finished a close third. I though Shifnal Chief had just got up and the camera confirmed it - Shifnal Chief by a nose.

If Oranmore had won the honours it would have been just as richly deserved and I've heard few horses get a warmer reception than those two when they returned to scale. The final measure of the quality of their performances, of their superiority over the rest came with the official margins - a nose between Shifnal Chief and Oranmore, an incredible eighteen lengths to the third horse Battle Fury.

Just a run of the mill sprint at Avondale, only a modest $4000 at stake. But what a memorable thriller that race was!  

Ends.   

[elbow 50]

10 hours ago, Insider said:

Flying Trix, now that's a blast from the past. I borrowed a full sister to Flying Trix (my first venture into breeding all those years ago) and bred a colt that never won a single race!

A blast from the past for me too..the owner of flying trix used to have a 'money scramble' for the kids in the know (ov which i was one) and chuck handfulls ov loose change into the air at the stableing area after most of her wins...imagine that today with the 'fun police' around

[gubellini 4,004]

elbow kids and even experienced horse people are not allowed access to the stabling areas these days. Flying Trix was owned by E. Churchill and Mrs. C.L.Sell. Mr. Churchill must have been a good bloke!

[swampfox 95]

5 hours ago, rdytdy said:

Can't add to original so continue here:

But first Shifnal Chief had to clash with Oranmore on the first day of the Avondale winter meeting.

This time "the Chief" had 65.5kg reduced by Mather's allowance to 62.5kg. He had to concede 3.5kg to the front running Oranmore and it seemed likely that he would have to concede him a fair start as well from the top of the straight. Though it is a big, roomy track with a long straight, Avondale seems to favour front runners. Whether or not the first part of the run home is slightly downhill, the leader on the turn often seems able to shoot to a handy break in the first 100m of the run home, and very often it is a winning break.

Oranmore, who hugs the rail like a mechanical hare, is well suited to such tactics and, having won already four races on the track, had proved himself well suited to Avondale. He sped straight to the front in the President's Handicap. Sabre Prince, who had looked on the way back to form and was himself something of an Avondale specialist, tried to keep the pressure on him making the top bend. But once they straightened Oranmore shrugged him off and shot to a commanding lead in no time. Meanwhile Shifnal Chief had got snookered on the rails well back in the field. By the time he got clear he was giving Oranmore an impossible start and he did well to grab second in the last 40 odd metres.

So the stage was set for another clash between Oranmore and Shifnal Chief in the Long Handicap on the second day. Both had risen further in the weights. Shifnal Chief was handicapped at 66kg and would carry 63kg with Mather's allowance; Oranmore handicapped at 64kg would drop to 61.5kg with Mathew's allowance.

At that level in the weights it hardly seemed a match race. Though the others were not in the same class they were receiving such big weight advantages, even with the weight allowances, that it seemed one might come up with a run good enough to overturn the topweights.

Just the same, a match race it was.  

The Cameron's, philosophical though they were about their first day defeat, had one instruction for Ray Mather; to have Shifnal Chief handier than he had been on the first day. For the rider of a horse like Oranmore there was no need for instructions, unless it was the classical old simplification: Go to the front and stay there.

So away went the field and away to the front, with that remarkable early acceleration of his, streaked Oranmore. Sabre Prince had even less chance of footing it with him this time; Shifnal Chief, as per instructions, was keeping handier in about third place but he was well astern of the flying pacemaker. And when Oranmore turned the corner and set sail for the judge, he widened his gap in dramatic fashion. From being two or three lengths clear of his nearest rival he was seven or eight lengths out in what seemed the space of barely fifty metres. The task of Shifnal Chief in closing that gap, though he was in the clear to challenge from the top of the straight, looked well nigh impossible. But horsemen don't use a very large vocabulary to their charges and evidently the Camerons had never taught Shifnal Chief the meaning of the word "impossible.'  

He set out to bridge the gap and, though Oranmore was still galloping freely in front, he gradually closed it stride by stride. Fifty metres out Shifnal Chief closed with Oranmore and it seemed he would storm past him. But then Oranmore showed his own brand of class. As "The Chief" came alongside he pulled out something extra and the two grand sprinters flashed across the line locked together. It was anybody's guess who had won.

I've become a rather better judge of the Avondale angle since the days when the camera gave the December Plate there to Gay Sovereign after I'd thought she finished a close third. I though Shifnal Chief had just got up and the camera confirmed it - Shifnal Chief by a nose.

If Oranmore had won the honours it would have been just as richly deserved and I've heard few horses get a warmer reception than those two when they returned to scale. The final measure of the quality of their performances, of their superiority over the rest came with the official margins - a nose between Shifnal Chief and Oranmore, an incredible eighteen lengths to the third horse Battle Fury.

Just a run of the mill sprint at Avondale, only a modest $4000 at stake. But what a memorable thriller that race was!  

Ends.   

 

[swampfox 95]

great thread rdytdy. brings back some memories

[Peter Harrop 226]

Latest on Oranmore. According to my mate on twitter, Oranmore had 26 wins, 3 of which were in Australia (June Stakes, Pacesetter Stakes, Homestead Handicap). Therefore I have entered his NZ tally as 23 wins.

[Peter Harrop 226]

Ooops.

[Peter Harrop 226]

The latest on this project is :

Most New Zealand Wins Since 1979 (Complete)
	Horse	First Win	Last Win	Wins
1	A GORDON FOR ME	1990	1999	26
2	OUR GENES	2005	2013	25
3	COVERED N GREY	1993	1999	24
4	OCEAN GUARD	1982	1990	23
5	CATERING KING	1985	1992	23
6	EL CHICO	2008	2015	23
7	SIR SLICK	2004	2010	22
8	SWEENEY TODD	1979	1985	22
9	BULGINBAAH	2004	2011	22
10	LORD ZIRITO	1986	1995	21
11	COMMISSIONAIRE	1981	1985	21
12	CHIBUKU	1985	1991	20
13	MICKEYS TOWN	1986	1992	20
14	VINCERE	1981	1989	20
15	PINNACLE	1991	1997	20

 

 

Most New Zealand Wins 1945-79 (Incomplete)
	Horse	First Win	Last Win	Wins
1	GREY WAY	1974	1979	50
2	KUMAI	1960	1969	34
3	SHOW GATE	1973	1977	30
4	PICAROON	1956	1964	28
5	GLADAUB	1962	1969	27
6	GAME	1966	1972	26
7	TATUA	1961	1970	26
8	KORAL	1964	1972	26
9	BATTLE EVE	1973	1979	26
10	TIME AND TIDE	1965	1972	26
11	PALISADE	1961	1969	25
12	KALGOORLIE	1967	1974	25
13	COGITATION	1950	1958	25
14	MAINBRACE	1949	1951	23
15	COPPER BELT	1974	1979	23
16	EXECUTE	1970	1975	23
17	RED CHIPS	1966	1972	23
18	SOMERSET FAIR	1954	1957	23
19	CABRIERE	1960	1969	23
20	LOCH LINNHE	1971	1979	23
21	LA MER	1976	1979	23
22	TRELAY	1969	1973	23
23	ORANMORE	1975	1981	23
24	HI ROONA	1975	1982	22
25	JANS BEAU	1969	1976	22
26	SHIFNAL CHIEF	1972	1979	22
27	SEVEN FORTY SEVEN	1972	1979	22
28	DAMAR	1964	1972	21
29	ROCHDALE	1959	1967	21
30	ETTRICK	1964	1971	21
31	TADPOLE	1958	1965	21
32	WATALLAN	1966	1974	21
33	MIDDY	1964	1970	20
34	DUTY FREE	1968	1976	20
35	WHAKAMOA	1964	1973	20
36	FLYING TRIX	1961	1968	20
37	GREAT SENSATION	1958	1963	20
38	BLUE NILE	1968	1975	20

 

[gubellini 4,004]

I Michael Sheridan advised me that  Oranmore did win 23 races in NZ one of which was a Dead heat with Rising Damp.Also Compensate won 21 and The Hob won 20. I will post details later.

[ellenbrook 17]

Not quite 20, but this thread has brought back memories of some wonderful racehorses in the 15-19 win range that were 'my' champions when I was first getting addicted to the sport: All in Fun, Irish Rover, Hero, Rebel.

[Behind the 8 Ball 46]

May I ask what you hope to do with the finished list?  In my racing photo library I have photos of most of the top listed.

[gubellini 4,004]

Oranmore N.Z. wins and Jockeys 

At 2 four wins. Kevin Cullen 3 Graham McCleish 1.

At 3 Seven wins. Tony Williams 4. Ken Reggett, Ken Mathews and J.M. Jones 1 each.

At 4 six wins. John Dooley 3. Tony Williams, Ken Mathews and P.Paquet from France 1 each.

At 5 one win. Dead heat with Rising Damp. Ridden by B.A. Doyle.

At 6 two wins. Toby Autridge and Cherie Saxon.

At 7 one win. G.McGrath.

At 8 two wins. Ken Reggett and Debbie Stockwell.

Remarkably 13 different Jockeys won on him in N.Z.!

[gubellini 4,004]

Compensate won 21 races from 107 starts. Debut on the 27/12/56 at the South Canterbury meeting. Last start in the Grand National Hurdles at Riccarton on 10/8/65.

[gubellini 4,004]

The Hob won 20 races from 140 starts. He won his debut at Southland on 3/1/48. His last start was at Waimate on 23/3/57.

[Peter Harrop 226]

11 hours ago, Behind the 8 Ball said:

May I ask what you hope to do with the finished list?  In my racing photo library I have photos of most of the top listed.

It will be updated weekly on my racebase website, along with the other statistics there. I've been running the site for over 20 years now, back when the internet first started.

[Peter Harrop 226]

It's interesting that in the 37 years between 1979 and 2016 there have been 15 horses to have amassed 20 wins or more in NZ. But in the 34 years between 1945 and 1979 we are so far up to 40 horses. They must have bred 'em tough back then.

[Peter Harrop 226]

Little Brown Jug must be up there somewhere?

 

[Peter Harrop 226]

Here's the incredible story of Grey Way, number 1 all-time on the list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0oTUZErrz8

[gubellini 4,004]

Peter interesting to note that 14/40 of the 1945-79 list were trained in the Southland/ Otago area. Since 1979 most horses capable of winning 20 plus races have either been sold overseas or raced extensively in Australia.

[rdytdy 5,343]

Gubes, can you locate a horse by the name of Cappimore (think that is how it is spelt) that was trained on the SI West Coast. Someone will know the correct spelling. Won over 20 races I think. 

[gubellini 4,004]

Ted Cappiemore won 18 from 98 starts. He was a very good hurdler by Thoreau. Trained by K.P. Doolan on the West Coast.Ikamatua I think.

[rdytdy 5,343]

Cheers Gubes. Some more from the depths of the grey matter are probably yet to surface.