The Foundation Brood Mares of Australia.
We have examined the foundation stones of our thoroughbred horse, so far
as the sires are concerned, and now it is necessary to look at that even
more important element in the building up of our racing stock, the early
brood mares. We have already noted the arrival of Manto and the birth of
Cornelia, the most important events which ever occurred in the
chronicles of our Australian turf. None of the mares that followed,
between 1825 and the early ’forties of the last century, were nearly so
potent for good, although the influence of one or two of these has been
sufficiently great.
Here is a brief list of those worthy matrons:—
1825. Manto, by Soothsayer—sister to Lyncaeus. (No. 18.)
Cornelia, by Young Grasshopper—Manto. (No. 18.)
1826. Edella, by Warrior—Risk. (No. 3.)
Cutty Sark (chestnut), probably by Soothsayer, but pedigree never
authenticated.
Spaewife (chestnut), by Soothsayer—Rous’ Emigrant’s dam. (No. 4.)
1828. Whizgig (bay), by Whalebone—dam by Canopus. (No. 3.)
Lorina, by Smolensko—dam by Whiskey—Hoity Toity. (No. 26.)
Dam of Alice Hawthorne.
1830. Lady Emily, by Manfred—dam by Cossack. (No. 29.)
Gulnare (grey), by Young Gohanna—Ultima. (No. 17.)
1831. Merino, by Whalebone—Vicarage. (No. 3.)
The Cape mare, said to have been by Driver. (No. 24.)
Fairy, by Catton—Voltaire’s dam. (No. 12.)
Octavia, by Whalebone—Blacking. (No. 5.)
1834. Penelope, by Phantom—dam by Woful. (No. 26.)
1839. Georgiana (Kater’s), by Waverly—sister to Corduroy. (No. 5.)
Persiani, by The Colonel—dam by Reveller. (No. 12.)
And then, during the ’forties, there came Falklandina, Quadroon,
Paraguay, Nora Creina, Miss Lane, Splendora and the Giggler. A few
others there were, but their sun has waned, their glory is faded,
already they have slipped over the horizon of time, and are out of
sight. Of the early arrivals, apart from Manto and Cornelia, Edella has
handed down to us such horses as Caramut, Malua, Mozart, Rapidity,
Glenloth, Sheet Anchor, and numerous matrons which may, at any moment,
teem, once more, with winners as of old. Spaewife lives through David, a
Debutant winner, Finland, Fishery, and all that Fishwife family which
brings back so vividly the name of that excellent old sportsman, Mr.
John Turnbull. Quambone, Fucile, Tim Whiffler and Troubadour spring from
the same root. Whizgig is responsible for Blink Bonny, Coronet, Meteor,
Prodigal, Ringwood, Rufus, Strop and Tim Swiveller.
Most of this little troupe came over to the mainland from Tasmania in
order to earn their fame.
Lady Emily is the founder of the tribe of Beaumont, The Bohemian, Lady
Betty, The Nun, Pardon, Picture and Reprieve, but Gulnare, who was
imported in the same year as Lady Emily, has left a much more indelible
mark on our records than any other of the pioneers, with the exception
of Manto.
That very remarkable man, Captain John Macarthur, who, I believe, did
more for young Australia than any other individual, imported this mare.
She was a grey, but her colour character seems to have been lost during
the gulf of years between us and them. Sappho retains her ghostly
influence over her descendants much more markedly than does Gulnare.
Yattendon was the great exponent of the family, but many good horses
came from the same line, such as Camden, Cassandra, Dainty Ariel,
Survivor, and so on, and there are a goodly number of mares still with
us from one of which the ancient glories of the house may readily be
revived. Merino, Fairy and Octavia are practically dead, but the Cape
mare, through Moss Rose, had many good descendants in the early days,
and she may yet again come to the front.
There is a very grave doubt, however, what the ultimate origin of this
useful mare might have been, for the Cape mare was thirty years old when
she is said to have dropped Moss Rose, and this is a very unusual, if
not unprecedented, age at which a clean bred mare could drop a foal. Of
those mares imported in the ’forties, Falklandina still exists.
Ritualist, the sire of some useful jumpers of to-day, comes from her,
and Maddelina, Torah, Terlinga and Monastery each claim her as their
ancestress. It is a South Australian family. Quadroon was a live wire
until of recent years, when she seems to have weakened considerably.
Chuckster, Grey Gown, Hyacinth, Kit Nubbles, Metford, Oreillet,
Riverton, Swiveller and Trenchant are amongst the best moderns who run
back straight to this old dame.
Paraguay, with a very limited list of foalings to her name, will
probably live for ever in Australian turf lore, as, of her two sons,
Whalebone and Sir Hercules, the latter has made a very deep mark in the
honour list. Miss Lane we have seen as the founder of the Madcap clan.
She was incestuously bred, her sire, Rector, a son of Muley, having
produced her from a Muley mare. The Giggler was at one time full of
promise, but with the failure of Menschikoff at the stud she seems to be
fading into oblivion. And the last of the 1840 to 1850 immigrants which
we will mention here is Nora Creina. Our reason for paying particular
attention to her is that we have authentic notes concerning her journey
hither, and as one voyage is not unlike another, we may, from this one
example, receive a general idea of the difficulties and pleasures of
transportation at that time from the Old Country. Mr. William Pomeroy
Green, in the year 1842, chartered a ship from Plymouth, and brought his
whole family, and all his household goods, along with him to this new
land. I do not know whether the vessel was a brig, a barque, or a
ship—most probably a barque—but, at all events, she was only of 500 tons
register.
Into this little thing was squeezed a family consisting of the father
and mother, six sons, one daughter, a governess, a butler, a carpenter,
with his family, the head groom, a second groom, a herdsman, a “useful
boy,” a gardener, a laundress, a man cook, with his wife, a housemaid,
and a nurse, a young and inexperienced surgeon, two young friends of the
family named Richard Singleton and James Ellis, Mr. Walker, a Sydney
merchant and his sister, a Mr. Wray from Devonshire—an invalid—Mr.
William Stawell, afterwards famous as Sir William Stawell, Chief Justice
of Victoria, as well as all the crew and live stock.
The latter consisted of two thoroughbreds, Rory O’More, by Birdcatcher
out of Nora Creina’s dam, Nora Creina herself, by Sir Edward Codrington
from a mare by Drone, her dam Mary Anne, by Waxy Pope out of Witch, by
Sorcerer; a hunter named Pickwick; a favourite mare of Mr. Green’s
Taglioni; a Durham cow christened “Sarah”—and Mr. Stawell took out two
bulls.
Here was prospective romance for you, and as much of it as you please.
Mr. Stawell, of course, married Miss Green, and their sons are amongst
the best-known, most trusted and well-liked of all Victorians of the
present day. The patriarchs of old, the Swiss Family Robinson of our
childhood, were never in it for the enterprise and romance of the whole
affair. They sailed on August 8th, 1842. The ship “Sarah” was not very
seaworthy—indeed, she was lost on the return voyage—but although there
were several gales experienced on the passage, and parts of the bulwarks
were washed away, they all arrived in safety at Port Phillip on the
first day of December. “Mr. Stawell swam his bulls ashore, but our
horses were taken in a horse box on a launch.”
In his diary, Mr. Green, under a September entry, says:—“My horses are
doing well. I take them to the main hatch every day that is fine, and
give them the height of grooming and salt water washing.” Mr. Green was
a man of method, and he kept accurate records of his stud doings. There
is no lack of particulars with regard to Norah Creina’s foalings, and
the only thing about it which we can complain of is, that he put her to
her near relative, Rory O’More, for all the first seven seasons. She had
slipped a foal, however, on board the “Sarah,” to an English horse. I
have no doubt he could not well do otherwise, there probably being no
other available stallion within reach. The old mare had fourteen foals.
Of these, the most famous were Tricolor (V.R.C. Derby), Oriflamme (Derby
and Leger), Royal Irishman (Adelaide Leger), Norma (Australian and
Adelaide Cups), Dolphin (Adelaide Cup), Pollio (Australia Cup), Quality
(V.R.C. Oaks), Spark (the Hobart and Launceston Cups), and Garryowen, a
lesser light. Such races, no doubt, were easier to win then than they
are now, but it was a creditable record.
Taglioni, the “favourite mare,” although with no given pedigree, has
rendered herself more or less immortal, in that Explosion, an Ascot Vale
winner, Pegasus, a Hawkes Bay Guineas winner, Volume (New Zealand St.
Leger), and some others trace to her.
So now we have taken a rapid and somewhat bird’s-eye view of the
thoroughbred arrivals in the Colony down to the beginning of the fifties
of the nineteenth century, and we shall now endeavour to take a like
bird’s-eye photograph of what these same horses came out to do, and what
racing was like in their day.