Family C-15: Myrtle

This is the oldest known colonial family, but its origins are cloudy. Vesta, born around 1822, is the earliest confirmed mare in the family. She was bred by Nicholas Bayly, who had received a commission in the New South Wales Corps in 1797, and had a somewhat tempestuous career in the Corps, first as a commander in the guard on the Barwell, enroute to Australia, and later as a rebel in the mutiny against Governor Bligh in 1808. During a period when those Bayly supported were on the rise, he obtained a grant of over 1,000 acres at South Creek, Cabramatta, which he named Bayly Park, and he managed to add an additional 1,000 acres adjacent to it. In addition to his political machinations, he married and established a family, and took part on the early races (1810 and 1811) at Hyde Park and Sydney, riding horses for Dr. D'Arcy Wentworth and his own horse.

Vesta was by Model, an arabian stallion imported from Bengal, India, by merchant William Browne, who owned Abbotsbury farm near Prospect (later owned by Charles Smith, and then by Thomas Icely), as well as various other properties in the Hunter Valley. Model was an early influence on bloodstock in Australia, getting racehorses and sire sons, and is also seen early in Family C -26. The identity of Vesta's dam is unclear. In the first volume of the Australian Stud Book, a daughter of Vesta, Maritana, is identified as "out of Vesta by Model (Arab) out of a mare imported by Mr. Badgery." James Badgery, born in England, had a grant of 800 acres on the opposite side of South Creek from Bayly Park. He owned a famous early race horse, the 13 -1/2 hand tall Rob Roy, and had an important early stud at his property, where the stallion Percy (1804, by Northumberland), stood. It is not clear whether, if the pedigree is true, the imported mare was from Great Britain, India, or elsewhere.

However, W.J. McFadden, a former keeper of the ASB, and the great Australasian turf historian Douglas Barrie both believed Vesta's dam was a mare bred at Abbotsbury Farm sometime between 1812 and 1815, known as Cariboo, by (Old) Hector, and out of a mare, born around 1803, by Rockingham; this Rockingham daughter, it is speculated, was out of an arabian or arabian-persian mare imported into Australia from either the Cape of Good Hope via the Brittania in 1793 or 1795, or from India, sometime between 1796 and 1800. This is the generally accepted history of the family. (Old) Hector was a persian or arabian stallion brought to Sydney by merchant Robert Campbell sometime around 1807, and is seen in many early pedigrees. Hector stood at the Bligh Street stables in Sydney under Campbell's ownership until 1812, when business reverses caused Campbell to sell this most famous of early colonial stallions to Dr. D'Arcy Wentworth (see Family C - 10), after which the horse stood both at Bligh Street and at Wentworth's Home Bush stud on the outskirts of Sydney. Rockingham is generally credited as being the first thoroughbred stallion imported into Australia, although his actual pedigree is unknown.

Whatever her antecedents, Vesta was at least half-arabian, and most likely had a great deal more of that blood, illustrating the importance of arabian blood in colonial bloodstock -- introduced a century later than oriental blood used in thoroughbred foundation breeding in England -- and its persistence over the centuries. For Bayly's son, Henry Bayley [an "e" was added to the last name], who succeeded his father as master of Bayly Park, Vesta was a good runner that beat some of the best horses of her time -- the "high-pressure nags" Currency Lad, Abdallah, Alraschid, and Highflyer -- in a sweepstakes over two miles in four heats. She was bred to Steeltrap (1815, imported 1823; by Scud (son of Beningbrough), sire of two English Derby winners), one of the most successful of early Australian stallions, who stood for many years at Charles Smith's Bungarribee, west of Paramatta, which Smith bought from Thomas Icely in 1832. Smith, who made a great deal of money in various colonial enterprises and dominated the Sydney racing scene in the 1830s and early '40s, purchased Abbotsbury Farm in 1836, and a few years later Bayly Park. Other great stallions that stood at Bungarribee when in Smith's ownership included Rous' Emigrant, Theorem, and Emancipation. Vesta's brother, Australian, had a notable win in the Two Year Old Stakes in 1825, and was unbeaten at Parramatta in 1827, which included winning a famous match race against Abdallah (by Abdallah, an arabian).

The result of the Vesta-Steeltrap union at Bayly Park was Miss Devil, that became an ancestress of Ravenswood (1876), a winner of the AJC Randwick Stakes. The more important offspring of this cross was Matilda, born around 1827. She was a good runner that "occupied a prominent position on the local turf," winning races at Hawkesbury and Parramatta in 1832. Bred to the successful racehorse and sire Whisker (1828, by Whisker), imported by Bayley as a yearling, Matilda produced the famous "Iron Gelding" Jorrocks (see below). Her daughters, at Henry Baley's new stud, also called Bayley Park, at Beaudesert, near Mudgee, bred on. Vesta (by Sir Watkins), in the stud of John Cleeve (who bought Bungarribee Stud from the estate of Charles Smith), became the dam of Medora (by Velocity) and Sir Watkin (by Purston), who was sent to New Zealand where he got the ARC Easter Handicap winner Bide-a-Wee (1871). Norna (by St. John) established a fairly long-lasting branch in Queensland that included Queensland Brisbane Cup winning brothers Lancer (1880) and Lyndhurst (1883), both by Westminster, and Recovery (1890, by Phil Athol), winner of the QTC Hopeful Stakes.

But it was an unnamed filly out of Matilda, by Mentor, born in 1850, that continued the family line. Her grandaughter, Countess (1860, by Pitsford), and Countess' daughter, Myrtle (1869, by Gemma di Vergy), were bred at Charles Tindal's (see also Family C - 12) Ramornie stud in the Clarence River district. Myrtle won the AJC Doncaster Handicap in 1874. Her brother, Viscount (1874), won the 1878 Epsom Handicap and other races at Randwick. Myrtle ended up back in the Mudgee district, in the Rouse stud, Biraganbil. There she produced the good runner and sire, Little Bernie (see below), a daughter, Cerise and Blue, winner of the AJC Sydney Cup and other races, and two other daughters that continued the family line. Through her daughters the family did very well on the turf at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, after which, with few exceptions, it fell into obscurity. Bogan Hero (1966, by Secret Kingdom), a winner of 20 races, including the STC Canterbury Guineas and the Frank Underwood Cup, was the most noted of recent runners, and some descendants of his dam, Miss Furdan, are still extant.

Notable Descendants