Night Raid (Imp.)
I think it might be true to say that ‘Night Raid’ made a subdued if not undistinguished beginning to his foray into thoroughbred racing and breeding in the Southern Hemisphere? Imported to NSW ‘Night Raid’ was successful in a race at Randwick but subsequently ‘broke down’ during a Cup preparation. The astute judge Mr A F Roberts was quick to realise the extreme value of his breeding lines and bought him for NZ. From only slender opportunities initially ‘Night Raid’ quickly established his credentials as a great sire.
Only nine yearlings were offered at the yearling sales in 1928 but these included the phenomenal Phar Lap and other good horses in Stealth, Night Lad and Push. Nightmarch went on to win the Melbourne Cup and the New Zealand Cup. From 1928 until 1932 only fifteen yearlings by Night Raid were offered at the National Sales and among these were Nea Lap, Pillow Fight, Aesculus and Cardinal Moon. The rest, as we say in the classics, is history.
The entrepreneurial Board of Directors of ‘Elderslie Stud’ promoted their own sale of yearlings at Trentham Racecourse, Wellington, NZ on Wednesday 23rd. January 1935. It appears the top price of 1450 Guineas was paid for Lot 23, Brown Colt, by Night Raid ex Quadrilateral, by L K S Mackinnon of Melbourne?