YEAR: 1956 INTERDOMINON EARLY HISTORY YEAR: 1984 In 1836 a French whaling boat sailed in and around the bays of Banks Peninsula and dropped anchor at the sight which probably impressed those aboard most...Akaroa. The French whalers stayed for several months and one of them, Francois Le Lievre must have been particularly pleased with what he saw, because a year later he was among 63 passengers on board the Comp de Paris, the first settlers' boat from France. Francois set about establishing the most successful farm on Banks Peninsula and marrying Rose de Malmanche, who had also arrived on the Comp de Paris. Francois and Rose raised several children, but it was Etienne who inherited his father's love of the land, and it's horses. Etienne, who was born in 1854, was brought up in the days when the horse was mainly the mode of transport. His family regularly travelled the miles to the flatter land of Little River, where at picnic gatherings each farmer would bring his fastest horses to race. Naturally, Etienne followed with interest the progress of trotting in town, Christchurch, which by the turn of the century was going ahead in leaps and bounds. It was obvious at the time that the early importations from America, the likes of Berlin, Childe Harold, Irvington, Vancleve and Wildwood, and mares like Jeanie Tracey and Woodburn Maid were responsible for considerable improvement in the local breed. Having inherited the largest and most successful sheep farm on Banks Peninsula some years earlier, Etienne had the resources and time to make some excursions in this field himself, and in 1904 he began the long trip to California in search of quality young horses. In the company of Robert McMillan, a highly respected young American horseman who had been living at Halswell in Christchurch, Etienne returned to New Zealand with a yearling colt by Sydney Dillon, a six-year-old entire called Wallace L and a five-year-old mare in Muriel Madison, while McMillan was credited with purchasing the stallion Mauritius and the mare Miss Youngley. The colt by Sydney Dillon, the sire of the first 2:00 trotter Lou Dillon (1:58.5), was Harold Dillon, NZ's champion sire for five years between 1916-17 and 1920-21. Harold Dillon sired some 190 winners including the public idol Author Dillon (1918 NZ Cup), as well as Waitaki Girl, John Dillon, Oinako, Sungod and Adonis, all among the best pacers of the day. Well over 200 winners came from Harold Dillon mares including Pot Luck, Parisienne, Glenrossie and Dilworth. Wallace L was only moderately successful at stud while Muriel Madison founded a very successful family, to which over 160 winners trace,including No Response and Koala King. Mauritius was exported to Australia in 1907 and wound up leaving around 120 winners while Miss Youngley was the granddam of 1923 NZ Cup winner Great Hope and is the ancestress of close to 100 winners. In 1913, Etienne went back to California and purchased a two-year-old colt by Bingen called Nelson Bingen and three young mares, one of which was Berthabell. Stinted almost entirely over the years to Nelson Bingen, the leading sire here for two seasons, Berthabell was to prove one of the most remarkable broodmares in the history of standardbred breeding in NZ, and the founder of one of our largest maternal families. Belita and Belle Bingen were the other mares. Belle Bingen had been bred fron Berthabell in America in 1913, being by Bingen, and had arrived with her dam in 1914. Belle Bingen was crippled on the journey to New Zealand, however, and was put in foal as a two-year-old. Berthabell had been in foal to The Harvester during the trip but upon returning to Akaroa the resulting foal lived only a few days. Etienne's poor luck was to continue, as in 1916 Berthabell foaled dead twins by Nelson Bingen. Then, the following year, Berthabell produced a colt to Nelson Bingen, the first of eight consecutive foals by the son of Bingen and eight consecutive winners. Worthy Bingen was unsound and very lightly raced as a trotter, starting 13 times over 4 seasons for four wins. Lightly patronised at stud, he sired 33 winners, including the champion trotting mare, Worthy Queen. Then came the champion Great Bingen. Raced by Sir John McKenzie and Dan Glanville, who bought him from Etienne as a two-year-old for £400, Great Bingen won £14,920, a stakes winning record for several years. In NZ he raced 73 times for 22 wins and 26 placings, while he also contested the Australian Championship, the forerunner to the Inter-Dominions, in Perth in 1926, recording four wins before being just beaten by Taraire in the final. While Great Bingen was the best pacer during the late 1920s, his younger brother Peter Bingen was also acquitting himself well in the tightest class. As a nine-year-old, starting from 48yds, Great Bingen was just beaten by Peter Bingen in the NZ Cup, the first of two wins in the event for Peter Bingen. Peter Bingen raced 87 times for 16 wins and 24 placings, for stakes worth £8629, a little more than half Great Bingen's earnings. Great Bingen later sired 46 winners, including Double Great (1935 NZ Derby) and Taxpayer (1932 Sapling Stakes, NZ Derby), while Peter Bingen sried 45, including top pacers Peter Smith, Double Peter and King's Play. After them came the fillies Bessie Bingen and Bertha Bingen, who were lightly raced as pacers, each winning twice. Great Peter (eight wins, GN Derby), Baron Bingen (seven wins) and the trotter Great Nelson (five wins) completed the remarkable record of Nelson Bingen and Berthabell. Mated with Guy Parrish, Berthabell left the leading northern pacer Great Parrish, who won 14 races and £3317, taking the 1929 Great Northern Derby and 1932 Auckland Cup. He sired 41 winners. Sent back to Nelson Bingen in 1927, Berthabell left the filly Bell Nelson, who was unraced. The Guy Parrish filly Corona Bell followed, winning once as a trotter. Travis Axworthy, whom Etienne had imported in 1924 along with Guy Parrish, was the sire of Berthabell's 1930 foal, the colt Ring True. Raced from age three until 11 in the north, Ring True won nine races and £2029, and later sired 46 winners. Ring True had his last start on February 14, 1942, 21 years and one week after the first of Berthabell's progeny, Worthy Bingen, made his debut, finishing third in the 1921 NZ Trotting Stakes at Forbury Park. The 11 winning progeny of Berthabell had won 94 races and stakes worth £35,335, a figure by today's standards that would run well into the millions. Credit: Frank Marrion writing in NZ Trot Calendar 11Sep84 YEAR: 1972
The end of what was once a beautiful romance with trotting for the long-renowned Bryce family finally came (it would seem) when last Tuesday, the day of the 1972 running of the NZ Trotting Cup - a race whose history the Bryces played an outstanding part in - James Bryce, jun. died in Christchurch aged 70. The father and sons triumvirate of James (Scotty) Bryce and Andy and Jim Jnr really hogged NZ's trotting limelight almost right from the time Scotty, in his mid-30s in 1913, shipped out to NZ with his family and continued his remarkable career as a trotting trainer. It is said that Scotty was so good with horses that the Scottish bookmakers were delighted to see him leave his homeland. And it took no time at all for Scotty in NZ to show why. This was despite atrocious luck at the start of the Bryce family's venture; and the story can be taken up when the little man from Glasgow stood on the Wellington wharf on a dull, cheerless morning in 1913 with his wife, his belongings and five children clustered around him, and had to take on the chin a blow that would have flattened anyone but the strongest. In surroundings where he knew no-one, wondering what the future would hold. Scotty was approached by a stranger. "Are you Mr Bryce?" And hearing the raw Gaelic accent: "Yes? Well,I have had some bad news for you. Your two horses have been ship-wrecked and are still in England." The day must then have seemed really dismal to the little man from Glasgow. Hardly a promising start in a new land. But Scotty was a real horseman - one of the world's best - and he was about to prove it in no uncertain terms. Stakes were small and bookmakers big in the halcyon days when Scotty Bryce learned to drive imported American horses in trotting races in Glasgow; but he was a canny Scot who soon earned a reputation for reliability in getting horses first past the post. Reading some NZ newspapers from London Bryce saw the pictures of the race crowds, which decided him to come and try his luck here. When he left Scotland, he was given a great send off. Owners and trainers presented him with a purse of 100 guineas in gold. Here is Scotty's own quote on that farewell, recorded in the Auckland Star in the mid 1940s by C G Shaw: "I have never tasted liquor in my life. I thought port wine was a tea-total drink. I never remember leaving the place." Fares and freight for the family and the horses left Bryce with £300 when he landed in Wellington, and it was at this stage that he learned that his two mares he was shipping out, Our Aggie and Jennie Lind, had gone aground in the Mersey on an old troop transport, the Westmeath, and were still in England. Subsequently, they were transhipped to the Nairnshire and after a rough passage arrived in NZ strapped to the deck after the mate had suggested putting them overboard. The mares reached here two months after the Bryce family, who had decided to go to Christchurch. The family was taken to a boarding house in the city but left after Mrs Bryce had discovered the woman of the house drank 'phonic', which is the Gaelic for methylated spirits. They went to Lancaster Park and there they settled. Three months after reaching NZ, Our Aggie, driven by Scotty Bryce, won her first race - but she did not get it. She had not been sighted by the judge as she finished on the outside, and his verdict went to a mare called Cute whose driver said after the race: "I did not win but I could not tell the judge that." Our Aggie was placed second and the crowd staged a riot. Our Aggie won seven races in NZ and became the dam of Red Shadow, considered by Scotty to be his best performed horse ever. Red Shadow won the Great Northern Derby in 1930 and the NZ Cup and Metropolitan Free-For-All in 1933, taking all four principal races at Addington. He sired Golden Shadow winner of the 1943 Great Northern Derby, and Shadow Maid, who won the Auckland Cup in the same year. When they first arrived with their dad and the rest of the family, James Jnr was 13 and Andrew 11. James Jnr, to begin with, got a brief grounding with the thoroughbreds, being introduced to a famed galloping trainer George Cutts at Riccarton. Before he could go far in his role as a racing apprentice, however, increasing weight forced young Jim out of the thoroughbred sport without him riding a winner. But he had been quick to learn and had what it took, Jim, who got his trotting driver's ticket when he was 15, quickly showed when he won at each of his first three rides in saddle events for the standardbreds. Scotty had two horses engaged in a race, but the owner of one of them, the favourite, would not allow the trainer to put James Jnr up on that horse (as Jimmy had been promised) and a bitterly disappointed lad took his seat on a little mare called Soda. This happened again on another horse, whose owner, with a magnificent gesture, presented the boy with a cigarette holder and 2s 6d. However, to this Scotty added a £5 note. Finally, the first owner who had been so reluctant to avail himself of James Jnr's services asked him to take the ride, and history records that the young boy this time prevailed on the horse he had twice earlier beaten - for three wins out of three in saddle races. It speaks volumes for Scotty Bryce's reputation that the biggest dividend paid by a horse driven by him was £14. Way back in 1923 horses driven by the old master earned over £100,000 in stakes. Scotty retired from driving when compulsorily retired aged 69 and died 20 years later. He had topped the trainers' list eight times from 1915/16 to 1923/24, being headed out in that period only by Free Holmes in 1922/23. As a driver, Scotty took the premiership five times, while Jim Jnr. was to top it in 1935/36. In 1925 Jim and Andy were entrusted by their dad to take Great Hope and Taraire to Perth for the first edition of the Australasian Championship, the forerunner of the Inter-Dominion Championships. Both horses fared well, but on the eve of the Grand Final, the father of West Australian trotting, J P Stratton, came to the brothers and candidly informed them that Great Hope, the weaker stayer of the pair, would have to win the final if the boys were to take the championship on points. Andy, driving Taraire, got behind Jim driving Great Hope in the race, amazing horsemanship being displayed by both brothers, literally pushed Great Hope to the line to take the honours. Scotty, knowing what the lads were like, tied up the money from those successes, and Andy and Jim, needing cash, decided to trade Taraire for an Australian horse and some cash when the carnival was over. To his mortification, Scotty Bryce not only failed to win a race with Planet, the horse got in trade for Taraire by his sons, but when he himself returned to Perth the following year with Sir John McKenxie's Great Bingen, he was beaten in the final by none other than his former stable member, Taraire. Episodes like this and the one in which Great Bingen, swimming in the Perth river, got away, swam to the bank, made his way though the city and back to his stable unscathed were part and parcel of the Bryce saga. At his model Oakhampton set-up in Hornby near Christchurch, with it's lavish appointments that included a swimming pool for his horses, Scotty and his sons lorded over the trotting world for many happy years. Between them they were associated with six NZ Cup winners and 10 Auckland Cup winners - either in training or as drivers while they won every other big race there was to win in NZ. Scotty trained the NZ Cup winners Cathedral Chimes(1916), Great Hope(1923), Ahuriri(1925 and 1926), Kohara(1927) and Red Shadow(1933). Of these he drove Cathedral Chimes and Ahuriri (twice) and Red Shadow, while Jimmy Jnr. drove Great Hope and Andy handled Kohara. Scotty prepared the Auckland Cup winner Cathedral Chimes(1915), Man o' War(1920 & 1921), Ahuriri(1927), and Shadow Maid(1943). Of these he drove Cathedral Chimes, Man o' War the first time and Ahuriri while Andy drove Man o' War the second time and Jimmy Junr. Shadow Maid. Then Andy for owner Ted Parkes and trainer Lauder McMahon won the Auckland Cup in 1928 & 1929 with Gold Jacket, while Jimmy Jnr. drove Sea Born to win for Charlie Johnston in 1945 and Captain Sandy for Jock Bain to score in 1948 and 1949. Their individual victories are far too many to enumerate, but while Andy was associated with such stars as Man o' War, Kohara, Gold Jacket and, in later years, Jewel Derby and Tobacco Road, James Jnr. took the limelight with Shadow Maid, Sea Born and that mighty pacer Captain Sandy. Eighteen months ago, Andy, at 66, was admitted to hospital with hernia trouble, told his daughter "I'm in the starter's hands," and died peacefully. James Jnr. left to join up with the other two sides of the redoubtable triangle early this week. Among the grandsons of Scotty, Colin(son of Jim) and Jim(son of Andy) were involved for a time in trotting but both gave the practical side, at least, away. It would seem the Bryce saga is over. But, who knows? Perhaps there will be a great-grandson to kindle the flame again. I wouldn't be surprised. Credit: Ron Bisman writing in NZ Trotting 18Nov72 YEAR: 1924
The 1924 Cup Meeting brought together a number of fine performances, with individual highlights being recorded by the likes of Acron, Great Bingen, Great Hope, the imported Jack Potts, the 3-year-old Kohara and the trotting mare Nikora, who downed a field of 17 in the Dominion. The Cup itself was another triumph for Australia, with Sheik, owned, trained and driven by Sydney's Peter Riddle, stalling off the game bid of the little Great Hope and Andy Bryce, who was the third member of his family to drive in the race. Riddle was a fine horseman and had been competing with success for a decade at Addington, where he had a team of six at this time. Sheik was among them, having arrived the previous season, and his form was such that he was favourite along with Acron, both appearing well handicapped on 36 yards. Great Bingen, in his first attempt at the Cup, was given 72 yards however and owner John McKenzie was so unhappy that he withdrew him, only to then watch Acron go the wrong way at the start. Acron, who won the Free-For-All on the second day in Australasian record time for the mile of 2:03 3/5, was to be the beginning of a long history of disappointments for the McKenzie family in the great race. **Credit - New Zealand HRWeekly 8Oct 2003** The seven-year-old stallion Sheik became the third Australian-bred horse, after Durbar(1908) and Adelaide Direct(1917), to win the New Zealand Cup. Only two more Stanley Rio(1976) and Steel Jaw(1983), have followed. Sheik's victory was a popular one because he had shown himself to be a top-class horse. He was well supported, being the second favourite after Acron. Betting on the race reached £17,000, with Acron and Sheik carrying half of the invested sum. Sheik's sire Bonnie Chief was by Chieftain from Clare, by Childe Harold. Francesca, his dam, was by Franz from Phoebe, both by Vancleve. John Cameron, of Moree in New South Wales, bred Sheik and was on the course to see the horse win. Sheik had been leased to trainer Peter Riddle, who in the previous year had bought the horse outright when Cameron disposed of his racing stock. Riddle was Sydney-based and had his first experience of Addington racing in 1914, when he unsuccessfully campaigned a team at the Cup meeting. In the 1923-24 season Sheik was campaigned in New Zealand and from six starts had two wins, two seconds, a third and a fourth. Riddle had six horses in training at Addington for this meeting and Sheik, because of his good form the previous season, was always one of the favoured candidates after the handicapper had set h9im on 36 yards. One owner far from satisfied with the 60-yard handicap given his horse, Great Bingen, was J R McKenzie. McKenzie withdrew Great Bingen from the race. He was left with his other representative, race favourite Acron, but the horse whipped around at the start and was out of the race. The outstanding mare Onyx was handicapped on the back mark of 84 yards in the 12-horse field. She had won the August Handicap and National Cup from 72 yards in August and earned her impostion. However, Onyx was always too far back in the fast-run race to have any chance. First Carbine, like Acron, lost his chance at the start. Paul Default, from the front, led out, and was followed by Blue Mountain King, Great Hope, Tatsy Dillon and Sheik. After a mile Sheik took the lead, and entered the last lap ahead of Realm, Great Hope, Taraire and Vilo. Taraire and Great Hope, the Bryce pair, closed on Sheik nearing the home bend and Taraire looked the likely winner. However, Sheik shook him off and then withstood a secod challenge, from Great Hope, eventually winning by a length from Great Hope, with two lengths to Taraire. Then came Realm (who went a fine race for Bill Tomkinson from 72 yards), Vilo, Tatsy Dillon, Paul Default, Alto Chimes, Blue Mountain King, Onyx, Acron and First Carbine. The Auckland pair, Blue Mountain King (who had won the 1923 Auckland Cup) and First Carbine, were disappointing. Blue Mountain King and Realm were by Ribbonwood and were bred in Australia. Only one saddle race was programmed on the first day, with these events gradually being phased out in favour of sulky racing. Although Addington's betting had peaked, the club kept faith with it's many owners and trainers and offered £15,450 in stakes over the three days. Racing on the second and third days was exceptional, with Acron, Great Hope, Great Bingen, Jack Potts, Kohara and Nikora providing the highlights. Acron, who failed completely in the Cup, gave a great display of pacing, winning the Free-For-All in a record 2:03.6, beating the previous best Australasian time of 2:04.2, set by Happy Voyage against time. Realm was second and Logan Chief third. Great Hope won the Courtenay Handicap in a record race-winning time of 4:24.4 from Sheik, and capped a fine meeting when he won the final event, the Spring Handicap. Great Hope started from 60 yards and paced the mile in 2:07.8. From the three races at the meeting the Bryce star performer recorded two wins and a second. Great Bingen, heavily backed, won the Hagley Handicap on Cup Day and Jack Kennerley reappeared with his budding champion in the Christchurch Handicap on the final day. Already on a 72-yard handicap, Great Bingen was just beaten into third by Vilo and Dolly Dillon. Jack Potts won the Metropolitan Handicap and then the Victoria Handicap, recording his fourth victory in nine months. The American-bred stallion became one of New Zealand's most successful sires. For nine seasons in succession (1937-38 to 1945-46) he was leading sire. In his first outing as a three-year-old, Kohara won the Australasian Handicap. The previous June, Kohara had won the 1923 Sapling Stakes at Ashburton. He proved his juvenile form was the promise of better things to come when he won the 1927 New Zealand Cup for James Bryce. Nikora, an aged mare, won the Dominion Handicap from 16 others. The horses did not take all the limelight at the 1924 carnival. Andrew Bryce became the third member of the Bryce family to sit behind a NZ Cup contender, taking the drive behind Great Hope. Owner George Barton had the pleasure of seeing his Bell Harold win the St Albans Handicap on Cup Day. Barton's name was to appear 10 times on top of the owners'list between the years 1927-28 and 1937-38 - unquestionably he was one of the most successful owners in New Zealand harness racing history. The opening event on the third day was the Governor's Handicap for trotters. A youthful Maurice Holmes, then only 16, drove Wonder Why, from the 60-yard mark, into third place, but he had to wait a little longer for his first success. **Credit - Bernie Wood writing in The Cup** YEAR: 1923
As the first two decades of Cup competition closed there was a changing of the guards of sorts when Great Hope led home the unlucky Acron, the first 4-year-old to contest the race, in the hands of James Bryce Jnr, who at 21 remains the youngest reinsman to win the Cup, along with Allan Holmes. In a fine field, they were followed in by Onyx, Willie Lincoln, Albert Cling, Trix Pointer and the winner's stablemate Taraire, the backmarker on 48 yards. Initially raced by his breeder Robert McMillan and then Joe Corrigan, Great Hope had only been owned for three months by Dunedin sportsman J Trengrove. He went on to be placed in the next two Cups and was also runner-up to stablemate Taraire in the forerunner to the Inter-Dominion Championship in Perth. Credit: NZ HRWeekly 1Oct2003 -o0o- Great Hope, always well-placed and well-driven by James Bryce junior, held out the four-year-old Acron after a great contest. Bryce, only 21 years nine months, was by far the youngest driver to win a New Zealand Cup, a record he held until 1932, when Allan Holmes, 21 years one month, piloted Harold Logan to victory. Bracketmates Great Hope and Taraire were the race favourites. The latter, the top money-winner from the previous season, scored a dashing win in the King George Handicap at Addington in August, posting 4:29.6, and qualified within the limit of 4:30. But Taraire was badly treated by the handicapper and shared the back mark of 48 yards with Vilo. As it turned out, Taraire began badly and never showed up during the running. Great Hope raced three times in August. Earlier in the three-day National meeting he raced prominently in the August and King George Handicaps, but failed to see out the distance, fading in the last 100 yards. In the National Cup on the final day he improved to run third behind Alto Chimes and Onyx. From the start Bryce positioned Great Hope, from his 12-yard handicap, in behind the leader Paul Default, and they were followed most of the way by Trix Pointer, Vilo, Albert Cling and Willie Lincoln. Snowshoe fell when mixing her gait in the back straight the first time and dislodged Bill Tomkinson. In the back straight the last time Paul Default and Great Hope were driven clear, while Onyx made a forward move and Acron moved up fast on the rails. At the tanks Bryce sent Great Hope away in the lead, and he turned for home on his own, finally winning in 4:31.4 by a length from the fast-finishing and unlucky Acron. Then followed Onyx, Willie Lincoln, Albert Cling, Trix Pointer and Taraire. Great Hope, a five-year-old, was by the American sire Great Audubon, from Sadie Dillon. He was raced early in his career by his breeder, Robert McMillan, of the Santa Rosa Stud, where Great Audubon stood at a fee of £15 15s. At three, Great Hope was the best of his age, winning the Great Northern Derby at Auckland and the New Zealand Derby at New Brighton. Between these winning runs, McMillan died and the horse passed to Joe Corrigan, a patron of the Bryce stable. After the August meeting, where Great Hope proved disappointing, he was sold again, this time to the Dunedin sportsman, J Trengrove. When presented with the Cup by the Governor-General, Lord Jellicoe, Trengrove expressed his jubilation and good fortune at having owned a horse for only three months and in that time having him win the country's most prestigious race. Acron was the first four-year-old to contest the New Zealand Cup, but, like so many other extremely good four-year-olds who followed him into the race, the win eluded him. Acron possessed brilliant speed and stamina and for 10 years held the record mile time in New Zealand of 2:03.6. The outstanding youngster of his time, winning the Great Northern and New Zealand Derbies, Acron was the last qualifier for the 1923 New Zealand Cup, winning the Islington Handicap, the last race on the final day of the August meeting, with a superlative performance. He started from 72 yards and beat 17 others to record a time of 4:29.8. Slow away in the Cup and a long way back early, Acron gradually improved and at the end of the first mile took a place on the inside, at the back of the first group. That proved to be a bad decision because Jack Kennerley could not clear Acron until the race was all but over, though he put in a tremendous run for second. Such bad luck was to dog owner J R McKenzie and his son Roy, who, despite every effort, have failed to land a New Zealand Cup. Yet, between them the McKenzie's have won every other important race on the harness racing calendar and have been leading owners 18 times. J R McKenzie headed the owners' list for the first time in the 1925-26 season. Acron and Onyx (who ran her usual honest race for third) were by Free Holmes' imported stallion Logan Pointer, then standing alongside his other American import, Rey de Oro, at his Upper Riccarton Stud. Both were successful sires, but Logan Pointer more so. Logan Pointer, foaled in 1909 and imported in 1915, did not race in New Zealand and was first represented on the sires' list in 1918-19. For six seasons, from 1922-23 until 1927-28, and again in 1930-31, he was the country's top sire. Unfortunately, Logan Pointer met a premature end, in 1924, in the prime of his stud duty, when he was kicked by a pony and had to be destroyed. In all, he sired 187 individual winners. His greatest son, without doubt, was pacing idol Harold Logan. Other outstanding performers, in addition to Onyx and Acron, were Prince Pointer, Jewel Pointer, Logan Chief, Cardinal Logan, Logan Park, Native Chief and the trotter Trampfast. On the second day of the 1923 meeting some excellent performances were recorded by several young horses, none more so than the victory by Logan Chief in the New Zealand Free-For-All, beating Great Hope and Happy Voyage. Logan Chief was one of the stars of the early part of the season, recording three wins and two minor placings from five starts. Kennerley must have been the envy of most trainers at this time, with Logan Chief, Acron and rising champion Great Bingen in his Belfast stable. But even with this powerful trio, Kennerley trailed James Bryce at the end of the season. Bryce trained 24 winners and drove 28. Kennerley, with 16½ training and the same number of driving successes, was runner-up. A cold easterly made the third day unpleasant. Don Wild, a free-legged pacer, won the Christchurch Handicap from Tatsy Dillon and Trix Pointer. Don Wild continued his good form after this meeting and by the end of the season was the top money-winner with £3202. Free-legged pacers have been a rarity on racetracks in New Zealand and few have made top company. There have been exceptions - Young Irvington, Don Wild, Lawn Derby, Robalan and Final Decision all raced 'without straps' and made it to the top level. Native King, a son of Nelson Bingen and Norice, won the Dominion Handicap in race-record time of 4:37.2. Native King was a brother to Nelson Derby, sire of Haughty. The betting at Addington over the three days was £210,436, a decrease of £11,000 on the previous year. The trend continued, as interest, it seemed, had peaked at Addington. Patrons at the track in 1923 were greeted with extentions to the steward's stand. However, the purchase by the club of a large property on Riccarton Road and the proposed transfer of operations away from Addington were much-discussed topics at this time. The Riccarton project never went ahead, although substantial plans were drawn up. Significantly, the track was designed to run clockwise, the opposite way to Addington. The Riccarton land was sold some years later, and it seems that harness racing in Christchurch will forever have its headquarters at Addington Credit: Bernie Wood writing in The Cup YEAR: 1923 1923 NEW ZEALAND CUP YEAR: 1911 WILLIAM CLINTON |