Family C-34: Lady Ann/Spray

This once-strong family put out a succession of excellent winners of classic and major Cup races in New Zealand in the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century, after which it fell into decline; the last horse in tail-female to win any kind of good race was Saint Nicholas (1959, by Belvedere), winner of the WRC Gloaming Stakes in 1963.

The family is sometimes named for Lady Ann, a mare in New South Wales, and sometimes referred to as the Spray Family, for her daughter, imported into New Zealand. Lady Ann was owned by John Single, a free settler who in 1819 purchased land from the original grantee, William Tonks, near Castlereagh, east of the Nepean River (Cumberland County), one of the five townsites founded by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1810 in the Evan District of New South Wales. In 1822 Single built his impressive Georgian-style farmhouse on land south of the Great Western Road that he called Nepean Park. A year later he received a crown grant of a further 240 acres from Governor Brisbane; he conveyed this acreage to Sir John Jamison, which became part of Jamison's famous Regentville estate. Single was a prominent farmer and grazier in the district, known, like Jamison, for applying "new" scientific methods in agriculture and grazing. Single took part in racing in the district, his best known horse the famous chestnut gelding Ben Bolt (by Aether), undefeated in his first year of racing and later known for beating the mare Lauristina in a famous match.

Lady Ann was by the short-lived, but famous, Whisker (1828, by Whisker), imported as a yearling by Henry Bayley in 1830. He became such a successful runner that he was sometimes barred from competing, and serviced mares while a racehorse (see Jorrocks, Family C - 15). Bayley's stud at this time was located at South Creek, Cabramatta. Lady Ann's dam, was a mare by Toss (1822, by Bourbon, imported 1829), an influential early stallion that stood at the Scott brothers' important thoroughbred nursery, Glendon Stud, in the Hunter River Valley, near Singleton. The dam of the Toss mare was, according to Spray's pedigree, an arabian mare, about which nothing else is known. Lady Ann's female antecedents, therefore, were probably in the same general geographic vicinity for several generations. The family was abruptly relocated in 1851, when New Zealander Henry Redwood ("Father of the New Zealand Turf"), secured Lady Ann's offspring -- a chestnut yearling filly, Spray, her half-brother, St. George -- and the mare Symphony (1848, by Trumpet or Slender) and exported them to his Hednesford Farm near Nelson. Symphony became a successful racehorse and later broodmare in New Zealand for Hon. Edward Stafford (see Princess Family).

Spray, bred by Single, was by Donizetti, a horse whose breeding is unclear, although it is generally accepted that a pedigree supplied by Benjamin Richards, his one-time owner, is the correct one: by Cantator (1836, by Rubini) and out of an arabian mare. Cantator was imported in 1841 by George Hill, who had landholdings at Liverpool and elsewhere with partner Charles Roberts, who had his Wallgrove Prospect stud in County Cumberland. Richards, a wealthy wholesale butcher and cattle dealer and later a chairman of the Hawkesbury Jockey Club in the 1880s, had a well-known stud at Richmond.

Spray, one of the best of the early New Zealand matrons, went right into Henry Redwood's stud, and in 1855 she dropped the bay filly Wetsail, by Sir Hercules, the great stallion Redwood imported from New South Wales in June of 1852. Wetsail won the 1861 Canterbury Cup for Henry's brother, Charles, and in the stud bred two winners of the Canterbury Jockey Club Handicap (16 furlongs, in 1883 re-named the New Zealand Cup), and Spritsail (1870, by Traducer) that continued this branch of the family, which included Minnow (1905), a winner in Queensland; Wanganui Cup winner Spindrift (1891), and the sturdy and long-running west coast stayer British Lion, who took the Hawke's Bay St. Leger in 1887, and went on to win the CJC Metropolitan Handicap, the ARC Handicap, and, in 1891, the New Zealand Cup.

Spray's next foal, Fairy (1856, by Glaucus), produced the good, sturdy Cup winners Opawa (1870, see below) and Lara, and daughters that bred on. 1898 Launceton Cup winner Sortie (1893) and 1881 Wanganui Cup winner Sir George (1877) descended from Fairy.

Spray's next five foals were bred by W.H. Harris, a prominent Canterbury owner and breeder whose stud manager, Hood Williams, himself was later an owner of good winners and influential in Canterbury racing. These were Scud (1858, by the important stallion Riddlesworth), Sailor (1859, by Priam), Stormbird (1861, by Sledmere), and the chestnut sisters Belle of the Isle (1862) and Little Lady (1863), both by Malton. Harris had imported both Sledmere (1857, by Daniel O'Rourke) and Malton (1858, by Rifleman) from Great Britain into Canterbury in 1859; in 1861, when Malton was old enough to breed, Sledmere was sent to Queensland, but later came back to Canterbury.

Scud was one of the first New Zealand-bred stallions to be of use in the country; he got Knottingley (1863), a great galloper and winner of both the Canterbury Cup and CJC Jockey Club Handicap (New Zealand Cup) twice. Stormbird won the Canterbury Cup for Harris, as did Belle of the Isle. Belle of the Isle later produced Templeton (1870, by Traducer, see below), "the best horse of his time," and through his sister Miranda (1876), she was second dam of the two good sisters Enchantress (1885, by Bundoora), winner of both the Hawke's Bay Cup and the Wanganui Cup in 1892, and Crown Jewel (1887), who won the Canterbury Oaks Stakes.

Spray went on to breed seven more foals, five of them for William C. Webb, who arrived from Great Britain by ship in New Zealand in 1862, in charge of the stallion Traducer and the good broodmare Mermaid for Lance Walker of Canterbury. He found work with Harris, training Belle of the Isle, Enchantress and Knottingley, among other Harris horses, and later training on his own account at Riccarton. Spray's last foals were Wave (1871, by Malton), and Seadrift (1872, by Sledmere, after he came back to New Zealand). Spray was put down in 1878.

Seadrift became second dam of Pallas, a winner of the WRC Handicap in 1903. Wave had two daughters that established branches of the family: Veno (1881), produced three good winning daughters, Pauline (1887, Hobart Cup), Starshot (1893, Dunedin Cup, and later dam of Dunedin Cup winner Margerine), and Diadem (1887), who won the CJC Oaks Stakes for Webb; she also bred the colt Ruby (1883), who won the CJC Champage Stakes, and the gelded Springston (1884), winner of the 1888 CJC Great Autumn Handicap. Wave's daughter Virginia Water (1877, by Traducer), became third dam of a trio of good fillies by Demosthenes in the second decade of the twentieth century: Impediment (see below) and Pente, both classic winners, and Cup winner Karo. These sisters bred on, but their descendants did not include any winners of merit.

Notable Descendants