Half Brothers Sire Winners

Half brothers, Excites and Duporth, combined to sire three winners at Quirindi, in northern New South Wales, earlier last week

Both sires won Group1 races, Excites, by Danewin, won the A J C Sires Produce Stakes, while, Duporth, by Red Ransom, won the B T C Doomben Cup.

The half brothers were produced by Staging, an excellent dual purchase mare; she won 10 races with four at Group 2 level.

She produced seven foals; six raced, five were winners, including four at Group level.

Staging can be readily traced to her taproot Teppo, the greatest mare ever imported into Australia, she produced the full sisters, Deneb and Isa, both were great producers, each being by The Welkin.

Ernest Clark was just about ready to give up on horse breeding and sell Melton Park Stud until an old cross country jockey, Jack Brewer, appeared on the scene.

Brewer persuaded Clark to give him a cheque for 5,000 guineas and he would put the stud back on its feet again.

Clark was gullible and Brewer was honest, after some months had passed Jack returned from England with a few mares, including Teppo and Light, the dam of Gloaming, plus the stallion, The Welkin,champion Australian sire three times, without exhausting resources of his cheque.

Judge Calls A Halt

Senior racing judge, Bill Quin, has judged his last Melbourne Cup, 15 in all; he will bow out of racing as from Tuesday at Sale, when he will officiate for the last time after 28 years.

He has been involved in some tight finishes in that time, but nothing much tighter than the 2012 Melbourne Cup when Dunaden defeated Red Cadeaux, by just a lip.

Originally he made his mark as a race caller, spending some time in Ireland more that 30 years ago, in the era of the strand starts.

He was a great judge, his decisions could never be questioned, he leaves racing with a lot of great memories and a touch of sadness.

Racing has changed when the decision was made to have just the one person in the judge’s box; this made his job much harder it was now time to slip away.

Silks Well Worn

When Zambagh loomed up in the Sandown Cup, for a fleeting moment it looked as if she would take a hand in the finish, the red, white cap, was quite conspicuous, but alas it had only been for a fleeting moment.

Half a century is a long time to maintain the tradition of a set of racing silks that were almost an institution back in the sixties.

About the first horse to carry those colours was Dark Jewel, by Star Kingdom, her only claim to fame as a racehorse was a second at Randwick.

Her pedigree was not flash yet she was a giant as a brood mare, she created a renowned dynasty for Sandy Tait and his family to follow.

That included Heirloom, Betelgeuse, Cabochon, Birthright and Baguette, the first horse to win the two year old Triple Crown.