Willem Barendsz

Hi Peter thanks for the kind words and suggestions but bit busy at the moment to write the history of Naki racing. If you take a look at post you DID say Wynthorpe Stud moved to Bell Block. The problem with the internet is that people can post virtually anything and too many incorrect statements that go uncorrected are taken as fact by other readers. Not sure how half full or half empty glass figures on this occasion but maybe more useful to leave the glass empty for a while and memory might impove. Always interesting to take a walk down memory lane and can't help but wondering how much stake money the good horses trained by Malcolm would have won had they been around today - likes of La Mer, King's Romance, Fort Hagen, The Higgler, Mun Lee etc would have matched the very best in Australasia at the moment.

Peter, Wynthorpe never moved to Bell Block. It is still at Tikorangi and is now part of a dairy farming operation. Its late owner L A Alexander left his estate (including Wynthorpe ) to a trust which was supposed to develop an agricultural college at the stud similar to the one near Bulls. Unfortunately there was not enough capital to develop a college. Malcolm Smith trained at the Bell Block property and he prepared horses raced by Mr Alexander and later by his estate. The great La Mer was one of those horses. That Bell Block property is now owned by Warren Bolton. Hughie Glasgow's best horses were Fort Hagen and The Higgler while his brother Jack trained Nerula at Rotorua and that horse is the only galloper to ever win the three main flat races at the Trentham winter meeting - the Whyte, Parliamentary and Winter Oats - in the same season.

Gryllsie would have been pretty happy with that but would have been pretty quick to get back to the jockeys room and roll himself a smoke by the way he had to work over the last furlong. Champion bloke and great rider. And the apples haven't fallen far from the tree in that family!!!

Yes she was trained by Brian Deacon at Hawera. Nice chestnut not overly big but strong filly. Raced with shadow roll in green and blue colours I think.

London Trader was raced by Jim Bull and trained by Margaret at Awapuni. Gus Clutterbuck rode most of Margaret's good horses at that time and Jim also had handy sprinter Zermatt going around at same time.

Rex Allen owned the dam of Noble Times and bred the filly but she was raced by Gary Vile and his stable clients and they had to exercise a right of purchase when the US offer came. Rex had nothing to do with the racing partnership that raced Noble Times.

Not sure what school you were at Peter but Fort Hagen's owner lived at Turakina south of Wanganui while the nearest school to wynthorpe would be Tikorangi School so pretty sure Miss Glascow didn't go to that school.

Not sure if you were watching same horse Hedley but Veandercross was not a chestnut.

Very sad news. Great rider over fences and pretty handy on flat. In those days jumps riders often got flat rides with clubs running multiple division races for maidens. Michael Gillies was also very willing to school jumpers for trainers and helped develop a lot of top jumpers sent down to Awapuni for Mike to school. Always nice guy to deal with and had a great smile with a cheeky grin! RIP

Not sure which races Jim cost him, but what I do know is that Jim Walker helped make into the great horse he became by teaching him and looking after him as a young horse. Think you will find Veandercross would have won a few more races had Jimmy gone to Australia and ridden him.

There is a national rule that asks for "one clear day" before any treatment of a horse with drips etc but in Victoria they still allow a local rule that says horses can be treated the day prior to racing as an animal welfare issue in cases such as allowing drips to help horses overcome events such as severe heat. The vet simply thought he could treat the horse given the hot, humid conditions in NSW. There is not a suggestion from anyone involved that the horse was given anything that came within cooee of giving him any sort of unfair advantage.

Please try and understand what happened here. The vet gave the horse a recognised and accepted treatment - he did not "dope" the horse. The only thing wrong here was that the vet had recently moved from Victoria to New South Wales and failed to realise that there are different timeframes for giving these sort of treatments to horses before raceday. There was no suggestion of skulduggery or any adminstering of a banned substance. It was a simple mistake on the part of the vet in failing to appreciate that the rules of racing differ in each Australian state. To suggest otherwise is simply ignorance of what really went on.

He also had a very nice three-year-old named Chicanery win first up at Bairnsdale on Saturday.Chicanery was purchased at Karaka Ready To Run Sale by Ontrack Thoroughbreds and is prepared by Peter Moody.

Alastiar Scown was the All Black and GArth the player from the Scown boys. Alastair moved to Cambridge and and threw a pretty handy sculler at stud.

I think you will find that Mark Barnsley won most races on Cuss.