Innehållsförteckning för August 2022 från Turf Monthly

Like most of the progeny of The Buzzard, and dare I say it, the sire himself, Katanga is another racehorse that has been largely forgotten by history. We have found a wonderful piece of racing writing by a great Brisbane journalist in Bill Ahern who wrote for the long since defunct Brisbane Telegraph in the golden age of newspapers. It is a great piece of writing and tells a great story behind a top line racehorse. Katanga was to win the following races that were called Principal races at the time. Many would now be considered Group 1 races. He was to win a total of 22 races from 88 starts and £17,064 in stakes. Katanga was to go to stud at Angle Stud at Dubbo where he had limited…

Buzalong was bought as a yearling by owner-trainer A. Leftwitch from Kingaroy for the bargain price of only 110 guineas. He was placed twice as a 2yo in Queensland including a sixth Division Maiden in Ipswich that earned the colt three pounds in prizemoney. As a 3yo, Buzalong was to win a Maiden at Doomben and a 3yo Handicap at Eagle Farm. He then was moved to Sydney where he won the Rosehill Rydalmer Mile and AJC Monash Handicap at that age. The following season he won five more races including the Grafton Cup. As a 5yo, Buzalong was to win the Hawkesbury Gold Cup and run second in the AJC Metropolitan. He then went to Melbourne for a tilt at the 1938 Caulfield Cup. It was an open race…

Nature Strip proved himself one of the best in the world by winning the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes at Ascot in June. Not only did he win, but he dominated a quality field to show the doubters what most of Australia already knew. Without in any way detracting from his stunning performance, we must remember that the racing industry has a habit of getting carried away with self-promotion. Nature Strip should rightly be rated the best sprinter in the world, but where does he really rate and what does he teach us about the thoroughbred? Why don’t we start at the beginning? Nature Strip is a son of Nicconi out of the Desert Sun mare, Strikeline. He was foaled on 16 November 2014 making him one of the unwanted…

Apart from being one of the greatest sons of The Buzzard, Playboy is the horse that was the foundation of the career of arguably Australia’s greatest ever trainer in Thomas John (TJ) Smith. TJ was born on 3 September, 1916, the eldest of seven children with his father Neil, an itinerant labourer and horse-breaker. By 1927 the family had arrived in Goolgowi, a railway siding town in south western NSW. Living in relative poverty, young Tommy received little schooling, instead working alongside his father in a variety of jobs on farms, carting wool, and even road building. His father was a skilled horseman and passed down his knowledge to his son who would earn extra money by catching brumbies and breaking them in before selling them to the local rabbit…

Despite the success of The Buzzard at stud, his fee and the prices of his progeny never reflected his stature. Similarly, while his sons had their opportunity, few had any success with Yaralla perhaps the most enduring of these. Katanga of course as we noted was responsible for one of our best gallopers of the 60’s and 70’s in Tails who we have mentioned. Surprisingly, The Buzzard’s daughters had their successes, but these too were largely limited. Nonetheless, some of these lines endure today. Rainbird is one of The Buzzard’s Melbourne Cup winners who continues to play an important role in the modern breed but is another horse who we have discussed in previous editions. Fair And Rare was a daughter of The Buzzard out of Dark Elegance by the…

In 1930, Jack McDougall, the stately gentleman owner of Lyndhurst Stud in Warwick, Queensland had his agents searching for a stallion. They found that Lord Rosebery had a well performed horse for sale named The Bastard but it was not available for a month as His Lordship had hopes of winning another race with him. McDougall dialled the young lady at the Warwick telephone exchange and advised her to cable his London agents with the note “Will wait for The Bastard.” The shocked girl responded, “Oh Mr McDougall, you can’t say that.” McDougall received the same shocked response from racing authorities when the stallion arrived in Australia leading to it being known here as The Buzzard. The Buzzard was born in England in 1926, a son of Spion Kop who…

Yaralla is one of those thoroughbred stories that come along from time to time. It is a story of a first time owner who struck it big albeit an extremely wealthy one to begin with. We talk of Egmont Palmer (Monty) Walker who was born in Brisbane in 1881 and had always wanted to own a racehorse. Monty was the son of the Hon. James Walker, a director of the Bank of New South Wales and enlisted in March 1916, eventually became a lieutenant serving in the 8th Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps. Following the Armistice in November 1918, Monty returned home where a less exciting career at his father’s bank awaited. By the start of World War II, Walker had found himself in the position to be able…