BLAST FROM THE PAST
FRANK OLIVER: Studmaster
 FRANK OLIVER
Frank Oliver is concerned that the Trotting Conference has seen fit to permit stallions to serve an additional 25 mares each season.
The successful Hilderthorpe (14 kilometres north of Oamaru) owner-trainer and breeder of the past 36 years is adamant that stallions are serving too many mares (125 is now the maximum permitted). Weak foals not suitable for racing are the result. Oliver, 73, is opposed to artificial insemination on similar grounds. He argues that a large number of mares can be served from the one cover, with a resultant loss of vitality among the foals.
Oliver has a rising 2-year-old in work, Mighty Guy, whom he considers "as good as I have bred." The gelding was obtained from a natural service of Nardin's Byrd on Rain Cloud. Oliver is breeding from four other mares. Three of them, Clutha Gold, Strip and May West, are in foal to Nardin's Byrd. The other, Bindy, has been stinted to Huirapa (Bachelor Hanover-Atanui) who stands at Methven. Clutha Gold and May West are both unraced daughters of Rain Cloud and both are by Majestic Chance.
Their brother Kawarau Gold, won 10 races for Oliver, including the NZ Kindergarten and Oamaru Juvenile Stakes in the 1972-3 season. Kawarau Gold went on to win in the United States. His half-brother, Lumber Box, has also won there in 1:58.
Bindy, a Newport Chief mare, like Rain Cloud, claiming Elaine Travis as her grandam, has produced Bayi who has a best time of 1:59.6 set at Blue Bonnets in Montreal. Fab, a half-brother to Bindy, amassed $121,000 in stakes and has taken a record of 1:59.4. Fab, now 13, won at Rockingham Park late last year. Fab won 10 races for Oliver, including the 1973 National Handicap at Addington, before being sold to the United States. Fab (by Hundred Proof) and Bindy (by Newport Chief)are both out of Gala Girl, who also produced the speedy Boyfriend, Mighty Chief, the grand trotter, and the good pacing winner Selwyn Hanover. All were bred by Oliver.
Mighty Chief, who was sold for 190gns at the National Yearling Sale, amassed $36,445 in stakes from 20 wins and 25 placings. The My Chief gelding numbered the 1965 Dominion Handicap and the NZ Trotting Free-For-All among his wins. Selwyn Hanover, who was also sold as a youngster by Oliver, won nine races, including the 1968 Queen's Birthday Stakes at Ashburton on promotion. Maida Million, who was relegated to second for causing interference in the run home, later became the greatest stakes-winning mare bred in NZ, with $323,048. She is at stud in the United States. Bramble Hall, who finished third that day, amassed $215,809 and raced to an advanced age in America.
The Queen's Birthday Stakes was among seven races Boyfriend won when trained and driven by Oliver. Six of his wins were gained as a 3-year-old during the 1969-70 season when the Bachelor Hanover gelding set NZ records for one of his age of 2:49.8 (11 furlongs, mobile start), 3:10 (12 furlongs, standing start) and 3:25.2 (13 furlongs, stand). Boyfriend did not hit the high spots overseas, but advanced his earnings to $99,392. Oliver renewed his acquaintence with Boyfriend during a visit to the United States in 1973 when the gelding's form had slumped. Oliver suggested his hopples be lengthened and the horse won at his next start.
Gala Girl, who was named broodmare of the year in 1970, died a year later as a 17-year-old of complications while foaling in June to a clandestine mating with a seven-month-old colt. She had won the inaugural NZ Golden Slipper Stakes at Waimate in 1956. Gala Girl (by Red Emperor) was one of eight foals Oliver bred from Elaine Travis. The best of them was Pala Royal, who won 10 races in the 1950s. Pala Royal, a Dillon Hall gelding, was particularly adept in heavy footing at Forbury Park, the track them being clay. Two of Elaine Travis's foals died and one, Puzzled, was unraced. Another of her progeny was Band Queen, who won the Waikouaiti Cup in 1959. Oliver bought Elaine Travis for £100 in 1943, mainly for her breeding potential. A daughter of Travis Axworthy and Alice Grey, by Balboa the noted thoroughbred sire, she was an 8-year-old and her best effort in 22 starts over 4 seasons of racing was a second in a saddle event for pacers at Beaumont.
Oliver, then rabbitting at Patearoa, kept her in training, and he won first up with her at Wyndham on New Year's Day, 1944, when Frank was having his first race drive. Oliver shifted to Oamaru soon afterwards and Elaine Travis won him three more races, the last at the age of 10. The shift to Hilderthorpe, where he operates from a 110 acre property, was made later. Oliver has met success with other than his own horses. He took over Admire in the 1965-66 season for Gordon Aitcheson and Fred Ferris and got the gelding back to winning form after an absence of two years. Admire won the 1966 Kurow Cup at Oamaru and caused a boilover when he won the Hannon Memorial on the course the next year.
"It is always a game of luck. Try to breed from the best horses," said Oliver when asked what advice he would give prospective owners or breeders.
Credit: Taylor Strong writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 10Jun80
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