Chapter II.. The First Race Mare.

The First Race Mare.

But now, after Waterloo, with the seemingly interminable wars and tumults lulled into peace and calm at last, things were beginning to shape themselves in the Colony. Evans had explored the country a hundred miles or so farther out than that point to which Blaxland’s little company had penetrated, and he had discovered the Macquarie River, and named it. Oxley had already condemned as useless almost all the fertile land of the Southern Riverina, although, at any rate, he had thrown it open, and in 1824 Hamilton Hume had walked with his few followers, and with Hovell, an old ship’s captain with whom he continually fought, from Lake George to Port Phillip Bay. Cattle and sheep had increased enormously, the country over which they depastured seemed to be without end, but markets were few and far apart. Horses of stamina, and therefore of the best blood were urgently required in order to round up the mobs of bullocks and cows which roamed the unfenced plains, and to accomplish the long journeys to the distant towns.

And thus it was that our best early stallions, and some of our mares which still, through their descendants, carry on their lines, were brought to Australia. Steeltrap, in 1823, was the first of the successful stallions to land. His was valuable blood. He was by Scud, and Scud sired two Derby winners, the first, Sam, bred in 1815, the very year in which Steeltrap was foaled, and the second, Sailor, in 1817. The Oaks winner of 1819, Shoveler, was also a Scud filly, and therefore it is perfectly evident that Steeltrap came from the most fashionable blood of his day, and must have been worth a great deal of money. His dam was by Sorcerer out of Pamella, by Whiskey from Lais. He was a chestnut, and “sired very game horses.” Their gameness, no doubt, was exhibited during the long and tiring journeys after cattle, for contests must have been rare in which they could have had opportunities of proving their mettle on the racecourse. Steeltrap remains with us still in the persons of the descendants of “The Steeltrap mare.” There were several matrons identified by the same cognomen, but this particular representative of the clan was out of “a Government mare,” presumably clean bred, and she left two daughters, Beeswing and Marchioness, both by The Marquis, a son of Dover.

Zulu, the winner of the great Melbourne Cup in 1881, came from this line, as well as Bylong, Stanley, Sweetmeat and Tridentate, while around Wagga numbers of the same breed are still alive through the medium of the mares Lady Cameron, Lady Phoebe, Latona and Antonia.

In the same year, 1824, which brought us Steeltrap, there also came to our shores Bay Camerton, or Old Camerton, or simply Camerton. He was known by each and all of these names from time to time. He was by Camerton, from Waltonia, by Walton, and quickly ran out, on his dam’s side, to the very famous Burton Barb mare, which is now so readily identified as the tap-root of the exceptionally high qualitied No. 2 family. Bay Camerton survives through the line of Camilla, a daughter of his when mated with Old Betty. But now, in the following year, 1825, arrived the first of all the race mares that have made Australian Turf story. This was Manto. It was indeed a happy day for our Turf when she, then a three-year-old, landed in New South Wales. She was bred in England in 1822, was bought by Mr. Icely, Coombing Park, and imported to Australia in 1825. I can find no description of the colour of Manto, as, curiously, she does not appear in the “General Stud Book.” The omission came about probably in this manner: In 1780 the Duke of Cumberland, “the Butcher” of Culloden, bred a mare named Rose, by Sweet Briar out of Merliton, by Snap. She passed through several hands, but ultimately ended up in the ownership of old Dick Goodisson, an eccentric fellow, and the favourite jockey, as well as companion of the Marquis of Queensberry, better known as “old Q.,” and worse known in the lines of the Poet Wordsworth as “Degenerate Douglas.” Dick Goodisson bred a filly by Buzzard from Rose in 1800, a full brother to the same-named Lyncaeus, and two more sisters, one in 1802, and another in 1803. These mares were simply known, after the slack method of the time, as “sisters to Lyncaeus.” The last foal of one of these same sisters to Lyncaeus, by Soothsayer, the individual dropped in 1802, was this Manto of ours, and Mr. Wanklyn, the erudite keeper of the “New Zealand Stud Book,” and a prolific author in the matter of “Stud Book” lore, believes that it was the fact that she was the youngest born foal of her mother, and that she was sold as a youngster to go abroad, which accounted for the non-appearance of her name in the recognised official records of the day.

Before leaving England, Manto had been served by Young Grasshopper, by Grasshopper, who was by Windle, a son of Beningborough, by King Fergus, by Eclipse. Young Grasshopper’s dam was a daughter of Sorcerer, and as Manto was by Soothsayer, by Sorcerer, we have an early illustration of the value of close in-breeding. Manto dropped her foal a few days after setting her feet on Australian soil, and the little thing was christened Cornelia. Unfortunately, Mr. Icely, unappreciative of the excellence and value of his importations, failed to keep anything like accurate records of his stud. He did not even take a note of the colour of his foals. We do know, however, that Manto, subsequent to the birth of Cornelia, also foaled Chancellor, to Steeltrap, Lady Godiva to Rous’ Emigrant, Lycurgus to Whisker, and Emilius to Operator.

She also produced a colt named Jupiter, which was sent to South Australia, but he is returned without the name of his sire attached. It is to Cornelia that we must look for the tap-root from which nearly one thousand racehorses in Australia have traced their origin. She threw a colt named Emancipation, by Toss, a bold experiment in still more extensive in-breeding to Sorcerer—a filly, Lady Flora, by Whisker, a full sister to her, named Besom, a colt, Euclid, by Operator, a filly, Old Moonshine, by Rous’ Emigrant, and Flora McIvor, also by Emigrant. Moonshine’s name still crops up through Coquette, Speculation and Progress—Grand Flaneur’s understudy, but Flora McIvor had an enormous family. For Mr. Icely she threw the fillies Fatima, Florence, Faultless, Emily, Zoe, Flora and Chloe, and five colts, Figaro, Cossack, Nutwith, The Chevalier and Bay Middleton. Mr. Icely then disposed of the old mare to Mr. Redwood, of Nelson, New Zealand, and for him she produced at the age of 26 and 28, or possibly, for Mr. Icely’s lack of stud records causes much uncertainty, at 27 and 29. Io and Waimea, Flora McIvor’s pair of New Zealand children, and her children’s children, from these two famous mares, rose up and called her blessed. Io and Waimea were dropped in 1855 and ’57, and then, full of years and honours, and with no further offspring, the grand old mare died in 1861. The list of great racehorses which claim her for their ancestress is too long to quote, but the names of even a few of these will tell you what a very cornerstone of our pastime Flora McIvor has proved herself to be. There was Bloodshot. I can see him in the Cup chasing Newhaven home now, when my eyes are closed. And then there were Chicago, Churchill, Circe, Cissy, Cremorne, Cuirassier, Euroclydon, Frailty, The Gem, Havoc, Manuka, Newmaster, Niagara, Nonsense, Oudeis, Parthian, Progress, Siege Gun, Trenton, Wakatipu, Wild Rose, Zalinski, Beauford and Zoe, whilst the brood mares that trace to the same source run into hundreds.