Family C-18: Miss Millar

This family descends from Miss Millar, by imported Wanderer (1826, by Wanderer (son of Gohanna), imported into Western Australia from Great Britain in 1831 by the Henty brothers, and, lacking sufficient prospects, moved him to Tasmania, then a lively racing scene. She was out of a mare by an arabian, and her pedigree beyond that is unknown. George Duppa brought her and the mare Vesta from Tasmania to Nelson, New Zealand in 1851. Duppa was an early settler in Nelson and an enthusiastic sportsman who rode and won with his own horse, Hairtrigger, in one of Nelson's earliest races on February 1, 1843, the first anniversary of the founding of the settlement. She appears to have been sold to Robert Rowe, later a hotelier leasing the Tauherenikau Hotel and the land nearby, known as the Ferry Reserve, which became the site of the Wairarapa Jockey Club's (later Wairarapa Racing Club) first meeting in 1874.

Bred to Henry Redwood's imported stallion Sir Hercules, who stood at Nelson, the cradle of New Zealand racing, Miss Millar produced the bay filly named Miss Rowe in 1853. Redwood later bought Miss Rowe, and she raced successfully in both New Zealand and Australia, where she was taken along with Redwood's horses Strop and Io and two horses belonging to George Duppa, in 1858. Back in New Zealand in Redwood's stud, Miss Rowe produced Una (1861, by St. Aubyn), Master Rowe (1862, by Towton), Ake Ake (1863, by Towton), Roebuck (1864, by Towton), and the great race mare, Peeress (1865, by The Peer); she died in 1866. Apparently Ake Ake and Master Rowe were good winners, in addition to Peeress. Una and Peeress (see below) both continued the female line.

Una bred one foal, Golden Crown (1868, by Potentate) for R. Farmer, a founding member of the Auckland Jockey Club. After that, she produced a number of offspring bred by Alfred Buckland: Perfume (1870, by the good racehorse and sire Dainty Ariel), Ariel (1872, see below), Queen Mab (1974, by Derby), Omega (1875, by Sledmere), Prince Charlie (1877, by Papapa), Nickleby (1878, by Papapa), Carbineer (1881, by Musket), the in-bred Bangalore (1883, by Ariel), and Perfumery (1884, by Billingsgate). Of these, Perfume, Ariel and Omega were notable performers, and Queen Mab continued the female line. Una died in 1886. English-born Alfred Buckland, who arrived in Auckland in 1850 and settled at Kohuora in south Auckland, was a livestock auctioneer, first in partnership with Joseph Newman, and after 1856 on his own, establishing what became the center of agricultural commerce in the greater Auckland area at his Haymarket yard, where he held a weekly horse bazaar. His broadened activities included wool sales and sales yards in provincial towns, and a sales yard at Otahuhu, which became Auckland's fat-stock market. He invested in and owned a great deal of land in the area, raising livestock, grain and row crops, and had a fleet of ships to move livestock to Auckland; his wealth and standing in Auckland later brought him a number of directorships. He established a private racetrack on his land at Buckland's Beach, where some authorized race meetings were held, served multiple times as president of the Auckland Racing Club, and co-founded the Pakuranga Hunt Club in 1872.

Miss Rowe's family has been relatively successful, mostly in New Zealand, producing three winners of the New Zealand Oaks Stakes -- Motto (1895), Ismene (1897) and Lady Scholar (1942); Great Northern Oaks winner Sobranie (1952); Great Northern Derby winners Ariel (1872), Omega (1875), Venus Transit (1874), Fitz Hercules (1878), and Corroborree (1969), outstanding major Cup winners, such as Ariel (1872), Peeress (1865), and Vagabond (1914), and recently good horses that have placed high in the free handicap for juveniles and three year olds.

Notable Descendants