In late January fifty-one years ago, Frank Conway a successful painting contractor, ventured to the Waikato yearling sales and bought his first horse.
For 500 guineas he bought a Gold Sovereign(GB) filly out of Gold Sim and named her Mayo Gold, a champion filly, she won 18 races including the Manawatu Sires Produce Stakes, the Railway Handicap and as a three-year-old in the space of eight days the Wellington Stakes and the Wellington Oaks.
Fast forward to January 2017 and deep in the South Island a promising three-year-old Raise You Ten (Raise The Flag[IRE]- Molly Malone) wins the listed Gore Guineas and adds another winner to the great dynasty created by Conway and that first yearling.
Raise You Ten was having only his fifth start when he won the Guineas. He won his first race on Boxing Day at Wingatui on the back of a good third, and prior to that had had two unplaced runs. He is trained at Wingatui by Brian and Shane Anderton of White Robe Lodge fame, where his sire Raise The Flag[IRE]) is a resident stallion.
He also provided that stallion with his first stakes wxinner.
Raise You Ten is the first foal of the Towkay mare Molly Malone an unraced daughter of She's Chic who is by Chief Mayo a son of Mayo Gold by War Hawk II ().
She's Chic won two races, and is the dam of four winners, including Kitty O'Hara who won five races and was second in the listed Canterbury Breeders' Stakes. She's Chic's dam was the unraced Marceau(FR) mare Very Merry who left three winners including the stakes placed Ricky O'Shea.
She in turn was out of Ciquita by Oncidium(GB) who is a half-sister to the stakes winning horses Mansingh and With Respect. Alamosa, Eloa, Perfect World and Lights of Heaven are all more recent descendants of this family.
According to Conway Molly Malone didn't get to the races.
"She had ability but kept getting a crook back all the time. I saw Raise The Flag advertised when he first arrived here, and I am a big fan of Sadlers Wells(IRE) and I thought he was the bargain of the century so I shipped Molly Malone off down there to Wingatui. Alsol I have a two-year-old full brother in work with Brian and a filly in the paddock".
"I also sent Kitty O'Hara down there, she was a good filly but had a few issues, she has already left two winners and has a foal by Raise The Flag, I just have the two mares now," he said.
"I have had more than 125 winners I know that, but I am too old to go researching to see how many more I have had," said the 90-year-old who arrived in New Zealand in 1951.
Originally from Ireland he and two mates were living in London after the war, when they immigrated to Australia under the "ten pound pom" scheme. They were working as painters there for two years when they got offered work in New Zealand and decided to try their luck here.
"Sid Holland the then Prime Minister, imported 500 houses from England and there was a labour shortage to build them when they arrived so all the labour was imported too" he recalled.
"The three of us got a job painting them and eventually we set up our own painting business, mainly painting low cost homes, then we got into property development and starting building flats and the like and I gave all that up in 1985".
"In 1966 I went to the Waikato sales and paid 500 guineas for my first horse, Mayo Gold. Ray Wallace said to me at the time why didn't you tell me you wanted a horse I would have bought you a decent one. She was pretty good to me."
"Luck pays a huge part in this game I was very fortunate to get her as my first horse. Wallace bought Carandulla for me and he won eight races, and then at a mixed sale at Waikato I spotted a Pakistan II(GB) filly named Peshawar. She had been tried as a two-year-old but you could see she was weak so we paid $1600 for her and she won eight races she was a very good galloper. Ballandine was another that Wallace traine, he won eight races including a Cornwall Handicap".
"Peshawar went to Mellay(GB) and that was when I first got involved with the Andertons and have been involved with them on and off over the years. I've got lots of long stories but that is because I have had a long life."
Peshawar left a mare called Kathleen Cecilia to Mellay. Conway sent that mare to his stallion Mayo's Son by Taipan II (USA) out of Mayo Gold. That mating produced a horse called Royal Troubador who ran third in the Golden Slipper. He also sent another son of Mayo Gold to stud that being Chief Mayo the grandsire of Raise You Ten.
"I have always had luck on my shoulder. I bought a four-year-old Alamosa gelding out of The Informant a couple of years ago, for $5000. He is named Castle Hackett and he has won five races in Australia out of Terry and Karina Sullivan's stable. I couldn't understand why no one else was looking at that horse I was obviously meant to have him it's funny how it goes," mused the man that has witnessed a lot of changes in the industry in that time, and in his opinion not all of them for the good of the game.
"I don't go to the races now, there is no real reason, I am that old that I wouldn't being going outside to watch them so instead of sitting inside at the races watching them on TV I watch them on TV at home. Why go to the races? Modern day racing is all about TV that's where people watch it, and we should be making more of the TV spectacle".
"Unfortunately though you don't get the media coverage, or information to support it. I mean in the newspapers there is no breeding on the racing pages, and yet some idiot in the TAB says you don't need breeding information to back a horse. That's the first thing a lot of us look at. What does he really know? People are not getting information at this stage so they won't bet".
"The TAB have forgotten that old people are a big section of their market, they just ignore us, they close all the local TAB's and make phone betting prohibitive. You know there is nothing wrong with the dollar each way punters who used to spend a social day in a TAB that they could walk to or take a bus ride to. To me it's backward steps all the time".
"The Australians have got it pretty right, they do it very professionally and I think their racing is currently the best in the world, just look at their stake money".
"Having said that," he concluded, "there is nowhere better in the world to breed horses. We have a great breeding spot here in New Zealand with the right climate, and we produce fabulous horses, but the same can't be said for our racing here, and I don't know what is going to fix it." – Michelle Saba
For 500 guineas he bought a Gold Sovereign(GB) filly out of Gold Sim and named her Mayo Gold, a champion filly, she won 18 races including the Manawatu Sires Produce Stakes, the Railway Handicap and as a three-year-old in the space of eight days the Wellington Stakes and the Wellington Oaks.
Fast forward to January 2017 and deep in the South Island a promising three-year-old Raise You Ten (Raise The Flag[IRE]- Molly Malone) wins the listed Gore Guineas and adds another winner to the great dynasty created by Conway and that first yearling.
Raise You Ten was having only his fifth start when he won the Guineas. He won his first race on Boxing Day at Wingatui on the back of a good third, and prior to that had had two unplaced runs. He is trained at Wingatui by Brian and Shane Anderton of White Robe Lodge fame, where his sire Raise The Flag[IRE]) is a resident stallion.
He also provided that stallion with his first stakes wxinner.
Raise You Ten is the first foal of the Towkay mare Molly Malone an unraced daughter of She's Chic who is by Chief Mayo a son of Mayo Gold by War Hawk II ().
She's Chic won two races, and is the dam of four winners, including Kitty O'Hara who won five races and was second in the listed Canterbury Breeders' Stakes. She's Chic's dam was the unraced Marceau(FR) mare Very Merry who left three winners including the stakes placed Ricky O'Shea.
She in turn was out of Ciquita by Oncidium(GB) who is a half-sister to the stakes winning horses Mansingh and With Respect. Alamosa, Eloa, Perfect World and Lights of Heaven are all more recent descendants of this family.
According to Conway Molly Malone didn't get to the races.
"She had ability but kept getting a crook back all the time. I saw Raise The Flag advertised when he first arrived here, and I am a big fan of Sadlers Wells(IRE) and I thought he was the bargain of the century so I shipped Molly Malone off down there to Wingatui. Alsol I have a two-year-old full brother in work with Brian and a filly in the paddock".
"I also sent Kitty O'Hara down there, she was a good filly but had a few issues, she has already left two winners and has a foal by Raise The Flag, I just have the two mares now," he said.
"I have had more than 125 winners I know that, but I am too old to go researching to see how many more I have had," said the 90-year-old who arrived in New Zealand in 1951.
Originally from Ireland he and two mates were living in London after the war, when they immigrated to Australia under the "ten pound pom" scheme. They were working as painters there for two years when they got offered work in New Zealand and decided to try their luck here.
"Sid Holland the then Prime Minister, imported 500 houses from England and there was a labour shortage to build them when they arrived so all the labour was imported too" he recalled.
"The three of us got a job painting them and eventually we set up our own painting business, mainly painting low cost homes, then we got into property development and starting building flats and the like and I gave all that up in 1985".
"In 1966 I went to the Waikato sales and paid 500 guineas for my first horse, Mayo Gold. Ray Wallace said to me at the time why didn't you tell me you wanted a horse I would have bought you a decent one. She was pretty good to me."
"Luck pays a huge part in this game I was very fortunate to get her as my first horse. Wallace bought Carandulla for me and he won eight races, and then at a mixed sale at Waikato I spotted a Pakistan II(GB) filly named Peshawar. She had been tried as a two-year-old but you could see she was weak so we paid $1600 for her and she won eight races she was a very good galloper. Ballandine was another that Wallace traine, he won eight races including a Cornwall Handicap".
"Peshawar went to Mellay(GB) and that was when I first got involved with the Andertons and have been involved with them on and off over the years. I've got lots of long stories but that is because I have had a long life."
Peshawar left a mare called Kathleen Cecilia to Mellay. Conway sent that mare to his stallion Mayo's Son by Taipan II (USA) out of Mayo Gold. That mating produced a horse called Royal Troubador who ran third in the Golden Slipper. He also sent another son of Mayo Gold to stud that being Chief Mayo the grandsire of Raise You Ten.
"I have always had luck on my shoulder. I bought a four-year-old Alamosa gelding out of The Informant a couple of years ago, for $5000. He is named Castle Hackett and he has won five races in Australia out of Terry and Karina Sullivan's stable. I couldn't understand why no one else was looking at that horse I was obviously meant to have him it's funny how it goes," mused the man that has witnessed a lot of changes in the industry in that time, and in his opinion not all of them for the good of the game.
"I don't go to the races now, there is no real reason, I am that old that I wouldn't being going outside to watch them so instead of sitting inside at the races watching them on TV I watch them on TV at home. Why go to the races? Modern day racing is all about TV that's where people watch it, and we should be making more of the TV spectacle".
"Unfortunately though you don't get the media coverage, or information to support it. I mean in the newspapers there is no breeding on the racing pages, and yet some idiot in the TAB says you don't need breeding information to back a horse. That's the first thing a lot of us look at. What does he really know? People are not getting information at this stage so they won't bet".
"The TAB have forgotten that old people are a big section of their market, they just ignore us, they close all the local TAB's and make phone betting prohibitive. You know there is nothing wrong with the dollar each way punters who used to spend a social day in a TAB that they could walk to or take a bus ride to. To me it's backward steps all the time".
"The Australians have got it pretty right, they do it very professionally and I think their racing is currently the best in the world, just look at their stake money".
"Having said that," he concluded, "there is nowhere better in the world to breed horses. We have a great breeding spot here in New Zealand with the right climate, and we produce fabulous horses, but the same can't be said for our racing here, and I don't know what is going to fix it." – Michelle Saba
