Thoroughbred Breeding Statistics from 1981 (‘40 Years On’)

Featured Image: The Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association of Australia News Bulletin September 1981

The Leading Sires List (1981) was a great triumph for the local (Australian bred) sires. Five of the top 10 seven were bred in Australia. The list again showed the dominance of the Star Kingdom blood.

The leading sire was Bletchingly who was also leading sire in 1980. This is a remarkable record for a sire with only three crops racing. He had 35 winners of 92 races and $623,000:00. It helped that top earner Kingston Town won 4 Stakes Races (MVRC Cox Plate, AJC Warwick Stakes, STC Sydney Turf Club Cup and Tatts Chelmsford Stakes) plus a second and a third from 5 starts and $212,325:00. A horse I bred ‘Bakerman’ (ex-Breadline by Honey Line IRE) won 5 races in Brisbane including the BATC King George VI Stakes and $34,500:00. ‘Super Spree’ (Ex-Royal Lark) by Comic Court) won 8 races and $48,300:00. Kingston Town’s full brother ‘Private Thoughts’ won 3 ½ races in Sydney and Brisbane including the QTC XXXX Quality Handicap and $32,450:00.

Second leading sire was Kaoru Star. He had 50 winners of 112 races and $607,543:00. His best was ‘Full On Aces’ (Colt ex-Better Draw by Better Boy), winner of the AJC Sires Produce Stakes, VRC Sires Produce Stakes, STC Golden Slipper Stakes , 2 seconds and a third from 7 starts and $227,150:00. Kaoru Star was also Leading Sire of Two-Year-Old Winners featuring ‘Full On Aces’ having previously won in 1976-77 year when represented by champion Luskin Star.

Vain (Widden Stud) was fourth on the General Sires List with 57 winners of 139 races and $492,718:00. Planer Kingdom finished fifth with 37 winners of 67 races and $490,606:00.

Osmunda finished second on the Two-Year-Old Winners list with 9 winners of 14 races and $183,510:00. ‘Black Shoes’ was his best ‘get’ who won four races including the VATC Blue Diamond Stakes, AJC Gimcrack Stakes and STC Silver Slipper Stakes for $129,500:00.

The 2020/2021 statistics are as follows:

See: https://www.bloodstock.com.au/bloodstock/sire-premiership-table.php

1	Written Tycoon	379	193	313	12	17	$17,035,983	Ole Kirk, $1,989,050
2	I Am Invincible	358	208	335	12	17	$15,741,201	Libertini, $944,000
3	Not a Single Doubt	236	103	150	8	10	$15,639,605	Classique Legend, $7,132,000
4	Snitzel	319	161	245	13	18	$14,281,120	Wild Ruler, $1,205,200
5	So You Think	266	133	230	12	18	$13,910,170	Think it Over, $1,344,000
6	Fastnet Rock	228	111	177	14	16	$12,316,954	Personal, $1,041,250
7	Zoustar	247	142	217	12	15	$12,295,285	Zoutori, $1,248,000
8	Sebring	330	149	222	10	11	$11,126,586	Nettoyer, $978,000
9	Exceed and Excel	200	99	148	7	10	$10,664,035	Bivouac, $3,452,600
10	All Too Hard	276	138	242	5	11	$10,041,066	Behemoth, $1,751,640

Coquetdale Home Guard FC 1944

Featured Image: Coquetdale Home Guard Football Club 1944

See also Howey Family History on this website: https://sconevetdynasty.com.au/the-howey-family-of-hepple/ and https://sconevetdynasty.com.au/supplement-the-howey-family-of-hepple/

This would have been a major event at the time. The players were all from the local district and the selected team made up by those who were exempt from National Service during WWII. Most were from the elder cohort of their generation and involved in essential services which included farming and agricultural pursuits. The provision of adequate home grown food was pivotal to success during the extreme exigencies of the war effort both for serving troops and incarcerated urban civilian populations. They included my late father John Howey of East Hepple Farm who was ‘Manager’ of the team. He was 40 years old and had enlisted at the beginning of WWII before being demobilised after 6 months service and sent back to the farm. Edwin Howey of West Hepple Farm who supplied this reference was in the same category.

I actually do remember many of the players. The three Wood brothers Matt, Jim and Alec were related to Eliza Rogerson who worked at both East Hepple and Warton. Dennis Davy was from Warton or a neighbouring farm nearer Thropton. Archie Scott achieved a measure of enduring fame as the trainer of Waterloo Cup Winning (Live Coursing) Greyhound ‘Holystone Lifelong’ at Aintree in 1953. The winner was owned and bred by Major Gus Renwick of Holystone Grange for whom Archie later worked when living at Holystone. It’s a very ‘Coquetdale’ line-up so redolent of the times.

‘Trevors’ & Betty @ Kilmore 1966

Page 32, ‘The Sun’, Friday 14 October 1966

Featured Image: Mrs Betty Shepherd gallops ‘Trevors’ on Kilmore Race Track by Ian McPherson

‘Trainers with Cups in their Sights’

“Her Hobby- Training”

There’s something about June Allyson in the broad smile and sparkling eyes of Mrs Betty Shepherd.

And that’s probably the last thing one would expect in the 35-year-old trainer of a Caulfield and Melbourne Cup hope.

For Mrs Shepherd, who has a 15-year old daughter, is a double rarity – a racehorse trainer and a successful one.

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Reg Watts & Norma: Warwick Gold Cup 1938

Acknowledge: “The Warwick Gold Cup”; ‘Campdrafting Memories and Magic Moments’; Compiled and written by Bev Cheers. Gifted by Reg Watts great nephew Frank Daley from Aberdeen

1938 Cattle Drafting Championship          Warwick               Queensland

Place                     Competitor                        Horse

1^st                           R. Watts                               Norma (274)

2^nd                          H A Burgess                        Glenisle ( 265)

3^rd                           G Duncan                            Pussycat (264)

4^th                           R Watts                                Digger (261)

5^th                           Boyce & Kilpatrick                Cadet (260)

6^th                           R Grace                                Ranch Hero (172)

Judges                  R Munro

Prizemoney        £100       (Includes value of Cup)

Winner Novice Draft

A R Atthow                         Piety

Winner Ladies Draft

H A Burgess                        Glenrock (Ridden by J Burgess)

• Reg Watts was the first New South Welshman to win the Gold cup
• Miss Gwen Duncan’s 3^rd place in the Gold Cup with Pussycat was the first place in this event by a woman

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HammondCare announces plans to build 30-bed dementia care home next to Strathearn House in Scone

Mathew Perry

Local News

See: https://www.huntervalleynews.net.au/story/7421783/scone-to-get-new-dementia-care-home/

Prologue (WPH)

The aged care industry in Scone is huge. It was initially the prescient vision of the late great Dr Walter Pye (‘The Man of the 20^th Century’: Audrey Entwisle) who first conceived the idea in c. 1970. It began as the Upper Hunter Village Association and ‘morphed’ into Strathearn Village in 1999/2000. HammondCare took charge in 2016. This next ‘iteration’ is the outcome of planning in the early 2000s which first delivered the construction of Strathearn House and Strathearn Village on Gundy Road.

Aged care provider HammondCare has announced plans to build a 30-bed dementia care home next to its Strathearn House facility in Scone after receiving development approval from Upper Hunter Shire Council.

IN THE PIPELINE: HammondCare has plans to build a 30-bed dementia care home next to its Strathearn House facility in Scone.

Initial works on the ‘cottage-style’ facility will begin in mid-September with the project set to be completed by June next year.

HammondCare Chief Executive Mike Baird said he was delighted the company was able to continue its investment in caring for vulnerable older residents in the Scone region.

“HammondCare has been a leading provider of dementia care for more than 25 years and the new cottage-style home in Scone will benefit from this experience as it provides an enabling, therapeutic environment for people with dementia,” Mr Baird said.

The care home will incorporate dementia-specific design features including single rooms with ensuites, a domestic kitchen and access to outdoor garden spaces for residents.

The new development will also include a new commercial laundry, an expanded administration area and the first stage of a new community centre for HammondGrove independent living residents across Scone.

HammondCare also announced plans to retire its 1980s Strathearn Village care home on Stafford St as part of the project, with current residents to be moved to either Strathearn House or the new facility depending on their care needs.

Mr Baird said consultations have already begun with residents, staff and other stakeholders at Strathearn Village to ensure a well-managed and safe transition over the next 12 months.

“Our top priority is the care of residents and we believe Stafford St residents will be delighted with their new accommodation on Gundy Rd which will provide improved facilities with the same excellent level of care they are accustomed to,” Mr Baird said.

Mr Baird said there would be no job losses associated with the transition and managers will carefully consult with the HammondCare team regarding their future employment arrangements at the Gundy Rd site.

In a statement, HammondCare said the project would help ensure the long-term viability of aged care in Scone by allowing it to consolidate its residential care services on its own land at Gundy Rd site, with the company’s current lease agreement with Hunter New England Local Health for the Stafford St site set to expire within five years.

 

Racing Legends Unite

Featured Image: Betty Shepherd and John Letts with the 2019 Melbourne Cup ‘on tour’ in Scone

Betty might have missed out with ‘Trevors’ in 1966 but she wasn’t about to let go of the Melbourne Cup for 2019 in a hurry on Thursday August 08 2019.

It was the annual promotional tour of the Melbourne Cup; a notable publicity triumph for the VRC each year. We had hosted the same event on Friday 15^th October 2010 when I played my part as Councillor of the Upper Hunter Shire Council. Des Gleeson was the ambassador then and Amanda Elliott the VRC Committee representative; now Chairman/person.

John Letts was an ‘ideal’ ambassador and played the part to perfection. He won ‘the Cup’ on two occasions: Piping Lane in 1972 and Beldale Ball in 1980. His busy itinerary this year started out at Godolphin (Darley) Stud Aberdeen, Aberdeen Public School, Aberdeen Pre-School, White Park Scone, the Thoroughbred Hotel, Strathearn House and the Linga Longa Inn @ Gundy. What a journey; and what a fitting finale!

John Letts rode over 2,300 winners in a distinguished career and was ‘immortalized’ with his two victories in the Melbourne Cup. In 2019 locally bred ‘Vow and Declare’ triumphed at Flemington on the first Tuesday in November. Mick Malone and his cohort crew at Kitchwin Hills made it a night to remember at the Linga Longa in Gundy! The Cup came home!

John Letts figures (briefly) in video/film ‘A Race of Horses’ on this website.

Betty Shepherd & Jack Green

Featured Image: Betty Shepherd and Jack Green at Randwick circa 1965

Jack Green took over the training of ‘Trevors’ during Betty Shepherd’s protracted dispute with the Taxation Commissioner of NSW

Glamourous Betty Shepherd had endured a ‘road block’ in her training hobby. She had literally been ‘taken to court’ by the Taxation Commissioner over non-payment of income tax on the winnings of ‘Trevors’ and other privately owned-and-trained gallopers. It was claimed she was ‘conducting a business with the industry of racing’. However Mr Justice Rath, Law Division of the Supreme Court, ruled in favour of Mrs Shepherd and dismissed the appeal by the Taxation Commissioner. Mr Justice Rath said Mrs Shepherd ‘had a love of horses and a passion for them’. He also stated that her betting system profited because of the “obliging habit of ‘Trevors’ (and others) to run true to form”. He ruled that monies received by Mrs Shepherd from prizemoney and wagering in the years 1963 to 1967 ($7,676; $7,512; $23,964; $13,586 and $14,961) ‘were not assesable income’. It’s just possible the Taxation Commissioner had one eye on spouse Archie’s weekly takings? There was a legitimate grocery supply/auction business but also a telephone-linked wagering service. Just musing?

Jack Green was inducted into Racing Hall of Fame in 2009

A member of a famous sporting family, Jack Green excelled as an amateur boxer and rugby footballer before five years’ service in World War II. In 1947, he was granted a NSW trainer’s permit, and began to make his name with a small team of horses, including problem horses such as Silent, Conductor and Winmil, which he restored to winning form.

Green’s career received a huge boost through his association with the progeny of Star Kingdom. The sire’s first two winners, Kingster (AJC Breeders’ Plate) and Ultrablue (AJC Gimcrack Stakes), were both trained by Green, and there was rarely a time when there was not a son or daughter of Star Kingdom in his charge. Among his stable stars were the full brothers Sky High and Skyline, who were bred and raced by AJC Chairman Sir Brian Crowley. Sky High raced for five seasons and won 29 races including the Golden Slipper Stakes, Victoria Derby, Lightning Stakes (twice), Futurity Stakes, Mackinnon Stakes, Caulfield Stakes (twice), AJC All-Aged Stakes and Epsom Handicap. Skyline won four races including the Golden Slipper Stakes, the AJC Derby and the STC Hill Stakes. Other progeny of Star Kingdom to excel under Green’s training were Starover and Gold Stakes.

Green’s greatest training feat was the victory of Baystone in the 1958 Melbourne Cup. He had bought Baystone in 1954 as a yearling and patiently developed him into a strong two mile performer.

Although Green never won the Sydney trainers’ premiership, he was four times second to Tommy Smith, and had some 80 feature race wins to his credit.

Green was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.

Reminiscing on the sights and sounds of racing circa 1954

Featured Image: Randwick Spring Carnival 1954

Prologue

Joseph Conrad said it first but it could have been Max Presnell; only the epoch and locale were different!

“I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more /the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort /to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires /and expires, too soon, too soon /before life itself”

It’s good to reminisce. I’m better practiced now I’m rapidly approaching 80 years of age. I can google with the best of them. That’s a consolation of staying alive long enough. The late Keith Binney (‘Horsemen of the First Frontier’) told me if he’d had access to Trove it would have been very much easier? I especially appreciated Max’s richly wistful piece on ‘Racing and Randwick’. I was actually searching for the origins of his ‘Bad Call’ on Ray Flockton versus Richie Benaud’. I discovered the following which I duly acknowledge. It transpires Richie Benaud wrote an emotional eulogy for his great cricketing mate ‘Flocko’. It’s fabulous nostalgia for any dedicated sports nut.

See: Reminiscing on the sights and sounds of racing circa 1954 (smh.com.au)

By Max Presnell

December 5, 2014 — 3.09pm

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Max’s Bad Call

See: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/racing/the-ink-is-still-in-my-veins-after-more-than-60-years-20181202-p50jrb.html

Featured Image: Richie Benaud

Legend: former Australian captain Richie Benaud wasn’t a patch on Paddington’s Ray Flockton … or so Max Presnell thought.Credit:3aw.com.au

Max writes:

“As a copy boy at Elizabeth Street to travel in the same lift as Keith Miller, the cricket hero who worked in the building, made my day. Some felt a young bloke employed in the counting house upstairs – Richie Benaud – was going to be good but showing my renowned judgment on all things sporting I felt Ray Flockton, from Paddington, had more promise.”

Need I say more? Remember Max is a punter! I’ve seen Max at a few well lubricated functions but I still haven’t been game to ask him what happened to Ray Flockton?

Richie’s brother John Benaud also worked at John Fairfax:

“Sporting editor John Benaud, brother of Richie and later the last editor of The Sun, coming back from a news conference kicking an iron bin when he didn’t get his way, is a lasting memory of more than 60 years with John Fairfax.

Ironic perhaps because Benaud, one of the outstanding newspapermen of my time, campaigned to get cricketers on the field in softer shoes and how his toes survived the bins is beyond me.”

Country Racing’s Pain

Acknowledge: https://www.huntervalleynews.net.au/story/7417814/country-racings-pain/

Featured Image: OUCH: Country racing participants have been hit hard in recent times. Photo: Racing Photography.

NSW country racing: Industry participants face ruin

        Jeff Hanson

Local Sport

Prelude

It doesn’t seem long ago when local ABC journalist Mike Pritchard was confidently spruiking the ‘rise and rise’ of country racing? I tended to agree. I posted the information on August 15, 2020.

See: https://sconevetdynasty.com.au/the-rise-and-rise-of-country-racing-in-nsw/

What has significantly changed in this short space of time? Some of the ‘causes’ are identified by Jeff Hanson as below. Locally could it mean the demise of tracks like Merriwa and Wallabadah? Over 50 years ago leading NSW Country Racing Owner, Breeder and Administrator Stewart Nivison from Walcha firmly stated after winning the Scone Cup in 1968 that the success or failure of country race clubs depended on the enthusiasm and zeal of the local committees? Is this the test for survival?

I have lived in Scone for almost 55 years. In that time we have lost a number of race clubs. Aberdeen Jockey Club ‘folded’ in 1971 following severe flooding of the Hunter River. Denman Race Club amalgamated with Muswellbrook about a decade later. It was all too hard out there in the rank dry bush. Recently Cessnock Race Club (owned by the NJC) announced no further race days but maintaining a training track. Private tracks at ‘St Aubins’ and ‘Alabama’ were closed soon after WWII. The last of at least three Gundy courses ‘faded away’ about this time. There was a final registered meeting at Gundy in 1946. I shudder to think what might have happened at Scone if we had not made the seminal decision to move in 1980? White Park had been enormous fun and very successfully established the Scone Cup Meeting in May as a ‘major’ on the country racing calendar. However the writing was clearly on the wall. There was much thinly disguised strident criticism; some of it snide and duplicitous. However we could not have survived to the present day; and thrived as we have. The brand new Scone Bypass (2020) slices right through the ‘old’ course!

I recall a meeting at Widden Stud with leading French Racing administrator and aficionado Monsieur Jean Romanet in the late 1970s. He stated then that every time the French Jockey Club had the opportunity to close a ‘fading’ Race Club they did! Deja vu?

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