Tabla de contenidos para June 2022 en Turf Monthly

No excuses were possible after Dark Felt’s runaway Melbourne Cup success. At every stage of the race he was travelling like a winner, and although a run on the rails on the inside of Saul making the home turn simplified his task, he moved right away from his main challenger, Counsel, in the last furlong. Counsel was three lengths behind Dark Felt at the judge, with Claudette a neck away, just beating three-year-old Precept for third place. Equal favourite, Skipton, was fifth, but he was never close enough to look a possible winner. The big majority of Queenslanders stuck to Dark Felt, and although 7/2 was still on offer here at starting time, Dark Felt was definitely favourite for money, as against the topweight Skipton, about whom it was possible…

Zionist is the last of the Spearmint sons we will look at this month. He was born in 1922 out of the Roi Herode mare, Judeo. Zionist was owned by the Aga Khan and was a quality 2yo winning the Dewhurst Stakes. At three, Zionist was to run second to Manna in the Epsom Derby, but was to turn the tables on his rival in the Irish Derby. Rather than stand the colt at his own stud, the Aga Khan chose to sell Zionist to Baron Brugmann as a replacement for his deceased stallion Soranus. In France, Zionist had moderate success producing Pomme d’Api, Scolopax and Mas d’Antibes but his best runner was La Bourrasque, a filly who was to win the 1931 French Grand Criterium. A younger brother to…

The Autumn ended with a shock if you were wondering who the best 3yo in Australia was. The Godolphin horse Anamoe, having run second in the Cox Plate after winning the Caulfield Guineas had been unchallenged as clearly the best of his age. A week after Anamoe’s unlucky defeat in the Cox Plate, a relatively unheralded colt won the VRC Derby, a race that connections of Anamoe probably thought was of little value to his resume. That colt was Hitotsu, a son of the Japanese shuttle stallion Maurice and most thought that the Derby was going to be the pinnacle of his career. In only two starts in the Autumn, Hitotsu proved that his Derby win was just the beginning as he won the Australian Guineas and AJC Derby to…

Spearmint had a special relationship with Pretty Polly that we discussed some time ago. One thing we did not mention was the sons that he had from daughters of that great mare that was also at the estate of Major Loder. Spike Island was born in 1919 by Spearmint out of a daughter of Pretty Polly in Molly Desmond by Desmond. He won the Irish Two Thousand Guineas and the Irish Derby and was to prove a fairly moderate sire apart from producing one champion for the great Federico Tesio. In fact, Spike Island was to end his career in Argentina, again failing to make a major impact. Instead it was left to the genius of Tesio, who mated his mare Delleana, herself an outstanding racehorse by Clarissmus out of…

We ran out of room last month when writing about the sons of Spearhead. Spearfelt was his most famous son and deserves his own story. Not only did he become an outstanding sire, winning the Australian Champion Sires’ Title in 1942/43, but he was a top-flight racehorse in his own right. Arguably his influence has been instrumental in shaping the breed, especially during the 60’s and 70’s. While history regales the influence of Spearfelt, his name barely seems to rate a mention in the modern era and hopefully we can go a little way to remedying this oversight. Spearfelt had an interesting history. Goulbourn Valley breeder, Mr JV Smith sent a number of his mares to sale in Victoria in March 1922. One of these, Lady Champion, by Challenger, had…

Four brothers and a sister comprise the O'Neill family, of Hatches Bay, New Zealand, and they have a record without a blemish in the business of breaking horses. No outlaw has entered their yard without leaving it a well-mannered, tractable and completely tamed horse. The four brothers were successful jockeys before they made horse taming a hobby. One of them was commanded by Queen Alexandra to appear at Marlborough House to show his skill. MY brothers, Ern, Sid and Clarrie, like myself, were jockeys. When weight told its tale, Clarrie took out a jumping rider’s licence, and Ern, Syd and myself became trainers. From early childhood we seemed to be able to succeed with horses with which other people could do no good. No matter where you go in New…

Spelthorne was another horse bred from Spearmint and a mating with a daughter of Pretty Polly. This time his dam was Dutch Mary who also the dam of Christopher Robin who won the Greenham Plate and St James Palace Stakes. He was brought to Australia to stand at Percy Miller’s Kia Ora Stud in NSW where he had limited success but did produce the Flemington Stakes winner, Halifax and VATC Debutant Stakes winner, Florin. Spelthorne was to win the Irish St Leger, St George Stakes and Duke Of York Plate. He had been bred by the son of Major Loder in Colonel Giles Loder and was also purchased by Percy Miller for stud duty at Kia Ora. He was to prove largely unsuccessful siring only three stakes winners in Pretzel…