RaceCafe..#1...Tipsters Thread.... Share Your Fancies For Fun...Lets See Who The Best Tipsters Here Are.
Nerula

Here is a hairy tale

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Heck, No! not the one you are thinking. of i'm sure. I wasn't interested in his Christian name and if he had still  been alive I would not have used the surname.;

I was going though my Documents file and deleting stuff and came across the story.

Always looking for a subject who has DONE things to write up. Any help from here?

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Back in the day, grand old trotter from the buller region a horse called  Durban Chief which had won two dominion handicaps, was sold to America, the horse was shipped to Australia, and was to traveled by DC 6 to California with four galloper and two kangaroos, one of the gallopers a promising horse called Up and Coming, it was  the first time horses had been flown to America from Australia.They stopped in Fiji overnight, the locals had never seen racehorses before, the horses weren't allowed off the plane, and had to have big cool air blowers to keep them cool, old Durban traveled like a lamb, but Up and Coming gave a lot of bother, they had stopped at Canton island to refuel, then got as far as Hawaii, where they spent a day an a half, eventually they got to San Francisco, and after a week went down to Hollywood park, quite an ordeal, Durban chief became the first New Zealand horse to win at its first start in America, he raced in Amercia or eight years, and lined up 242 times for 47 wins 25 seconds 30 thirds, and retired at 13 years of age, then continued to on to give trotting exhibitions till the ripe age of 21, wouldn't be many out there that would remember him, but not many horses win two dominions, lyell creek from memory may have won three.The memories of the good old days, so much gets forgotten. 

 

 

 

 

 

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I've also got a good one for you. Can't remember the name of the bloke who was sort of my companion flyer but maybe he reads this site and adds additional tweaks.

We were attempting to travel across the Tasman with a load of horses. Arrived at Auckland airport at 5.00 am for the start to load. The Japanese Prime Minister's plane was in the bay next to where we were about to load. Plane was delayed, so there we were, no cappuccinos , or drive by food outlets, probably 8-12 trucks of horses waiting to get onto the plane and there was a delay of three hours. To make life interesting, I had a connecting cattle freighter flight from Sydney to Perth (went to Uni in Perth) about six hours after proposed landing time. 

Plane turns up 4 1/2 hours late with some breed of goat aboard that didn't have the right immigration papers so we have yet another 3 hour delay while Wellington pen pushers try and decide what to do (today they would have incinerated the dam thing). End up letting the thing in. So we start loading 7 hours behind time. The horses were on edge and many were tranquilised. About an hour through the exercise, we have a breaker (one that goes spastic and loses the plot so instead of killing it (good race mare) we decide to unravel the 4-5 pallets (4 horses in a pallet) to get the thing out in one piece. Risky practise but probably worth it. By the time we got going again, the tranquilisers were wearing off. Got most of the pallets in when one of the police guarding the Japanese PM's plane yells at us that a horse got free. We looked up and there on the edge of the planes hold, three stories up, was a yearling (third top price at the yearling sales) shaking free at the opening of the hold....decided to commit hari kiri and jump out of the plane. Two things saved it. The first was the rollers that you roll the pallets on into the hold facing the right way and the second was that the pallet hoist was up. Yearling decided to break for freedom, hind legs slipped on the rollers and instead of launching itself like a springbok, managed to get its hind legs caught between the ramp and the plane. Remember this is 10-15 m off the ground. I ran like stink across the tar mat and up the ladder while this poor beast was thrashing away trying to free itself. Jumped on its head to hold it down because as part of the thrashing, it was beating itself senseless. The other bloke (referred to previously but can't remember his name) was right up my jacky and jumped on the poor beast's shoulder and it stopped beating itself up. Took half an hour to work out how to sort the situation out. Finally got the beast tied down so its couldn't scratch itself and lowered the hoist. Amazingly it ended up just having bark marks. Didn't travel though.

Ended up leaving at 11.00pm in  the evening but no without a further hassle. One had to be put down during the flight as it threw a wobbly that couldn't be brought back from. Missed my flight to Perth but IRT paid for a seat because we all stepped up.

An awfull lot to be said for the blokes who get no glory for travelling horses to all corner of the planet. It's sometimes a very tough job and never a lot of thanks.

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