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Martian was a comparatively lightly raced winner of four races in New Zealand, and later seven times leading sire in that country. He got numerous classic winners, a series of outstanding stayers that won every distance race, and one brilliant sprinter-miler. While almost all of his best running sons were geldings, his daughters were good producers that infused long-lasting sturdiness into New Zealand bloodstock.
His sire, Martagon
His sire, Martagon (1887), was a close relative of the unbeaten English Triple Crown winner, Ormonde, being out of Tiger Lily, a sister to Ormonde's dam Lily Agnes, and by Ormonde's sire, Derby winner Bend Or. Unlike her sister, Tiger Lily was not a stellar racemare, although she did win the mile Biennial at Redcar and the 1-1/2 mile Great Northern St. Leger at Stockton.
Martagon was a good runner in the highest company, several times running second by a head to such horses as the brilliant filly Signorina, but it wasn't until he was age five that he won two significant races -- Ascot's two mile Gold Vase, and the 2-1/2 mile Goodwood Cup. Martagon didn't have "the best of forelegs" and reportedly not the best of tempers, either. But as a stallion he was successful, getting Oaks winners Musa and Snow Marten, and St. Leger winner Wool Winder, unlucky not to have won the Derby and later a leading sire in Austria. Martagon also got such successful mid-distance runners as Champ de Mars, Paddington, and Jaquemart.
Several Martagon sons were imported into Australia. One was Shepherd King (1911, out of St. Windeline by St. Simon), winner of the Caulfield Cup, who ran second to SASANOF in the 1916 Melbourne Cup; he was later a moderately successful sire in Queensland, his best Kinslot (1919), winner of the QTC Derby and Queensland Cup. Another was Buckwheat (1906, from Sesame by St. Simon), who won the Duke of York Stakes at York and was a stallion in Ireland for five seasons, getting some good winners there for his owner Major Eustace Loder and others (winners of 95 races from nine crops), before being purchased by W.B. Thompson and his brother via the British Bloodstock Agency. He was not a success in Australia, however. Hallowmas (1908, out of Halloween, by Ayrshire) born in England and sent to Australia, won over a half-dozen races through 1915, and as a stallion in New Zealand got some successful runners, including New Zealand Oaks winner Isabel, and the good sprinter Reremona.
Martagon's son Marathon (1904), imported in-utero to the U.S., became the sire of some good racehorses, including Preakness Stakes winner Jack Hare, Kentucky Derby winner Behave Yourself, and American Grand National Steeplechase winner Square Dealer. Another son, Mazagan, was a good stayer that won six races, including the Jockey Club Cup and Goodwood Cup -- he was shipped off to stud duty in the U.S., and after just a few years at stud was sold to Australia, where he died in 1915. In the U.S. Marzagan got the gelded Mazarin (1907), winner of the Maryland Hunt Cup in 1921, and Master Robert, a decent three-year-old that won the Broadway Stakes and Belmont Park's Autumn weight-for-age handicap, and second in the Jerome Handicap, later sire of the good timber horse Bon Master (1917), twice winner of the Maryland Hunt Cup. Martagon was also a decent broodmare sire whose daughters bred Oaks winner Mirska and some other good ones.
His dam, Otterden
Martian's dam, the brown mare Otterden (1896), was described as a "racy-looking" filly, but "rather delicate." She never raced, and at age three was given by her breeder, J.H. Houldsworth to his trainer, Newmarket-based Jack Ryan. Douglas Baird, another Ryan client and Martagon's owner, offered Ryan a free nomination to Martagon. Houldsworth had bred Otterden's dam, Spring Morn (winner of three of seven juvenile starts, including the International Two-Year-Old Plate at Kempton and a Triennial Stakes at Ascot, and at age three second placed in the Yorkshire Oaks in one of two starts), by his speedy stallion, Springfield, from Sunray, a daughter of Houldsworth's outstanding foundation broodmare, Sunshine. Otterden's sire, Sheen, was a son of the leading sire Hampton. Sheen a late-maturing, weight-carrying stayer, won the Jockey Club Cup and the Cesarewitch Handicap, and eight other races, and became modest stallion that ended his days in Scotland servicing mares for a fee of nine guineas. One of Sheen's daughters, Doncaster Beauty, was the dam of Torpoint (1900, by Trenton), like his grandsire, Sheen, a late-maturing stayer that subsequently got some influential broodmare daughters.
George G. Stead was a banker and later exporter and land owner, and long-time treasurer of the Canterbury Jockey Club, who consistently topped the list of leading owners in New Zealand in the late 1880s and 1890s, and would continue to dominate racing there through most of the first decade of the 20th century. In 1900 he bought Otterden, in foal to Martagon, and sent her to Canterbury. Stead had been a regular and successful purchaser of in-foal mares in England; one of his earlier imports had been Nelly Moore, bought by Stead at the Cobham Stud Company dispersal sale in England. She was carrying Lochiel, an injury-plagued, but outstanding runner in both New Zealand and Australia (twice beating the greatCarbine) for Stead, and later in Australia a superior stallion that led the sires listing five times. Steppe, the dam of three-time leading sire Stepniak, was another Stead import from England.
Born in February, 1901, a "miserable little runt" with legs so crooked they had to be splinted, Martian grew to be a small, but attractive colt. He was placed in training with Stead's trainer, the noted R.J. "Dick" Mason, a former jockey who became one of New Zealand's most successful trainers ever, and who steered all of Stead's great winners in New Zealand and Australia to success after the mid 1880s.
Martian's dam, Otterden, went on to become a very successful broodmare in New Zealand. For Stead, in addition to Martian, she bred Sun God (1902), second in the Welcome Stakes at Riccarton, followed by a win in the Great Northern Foal Stakes at Auckland Christmas meeting, and at age three at Sydney, Australia, second to Stead's Noctuiform in the AJC Derby, and winning the New Stakes and Grantham Stakes at that meeting, but he met with an accident while in training back in New Zealand, and had to be put down.
In 1904 Otterden produced a brother to Sun God, the unbeaten, but unsound, Boniform (by Multiform, also sire of Stead's great race mare Nightfall). Boniform won his only race as a juvenile, the AJC Breeders Plate at Sydney, and in New Zealand at age three was winner of the ARC Great Northern Derby, his only race that season, and in his only race at age four he won the CJC Great Autumn Handicap. Boniform was later a very successful stallion in New Zealand, his more notable offspring including dual Great Northern Derby and New Zealand Derby Stakes winner Bon Reve (1909, later a superior jumper), the excellent gelding The Toff, winner of the New Zealand Derby Stakes, the Great Northern St. Leger, the Auckland plate and the Canterbury Cup; New Zealand and Auckland Cup winner Scion; New Zealand Oaks winner Bonny Helen, and Great Northern Oaks winner Bonny Doreen.
Some of Otterden's daughters also bred on with success. The temperamental Manfred (1922, by Valais), winner in Australia of the AJC Derby, the W.S. Cox Plate, the VRC Derby, the Caulfield Stakes and Caulfield Cup, and many other good races, and second to Windbag in the Melbourne Cup, was a great-grandson of Otterden's through her daughter Otterform (1910, by Multiform).
Martian on the Turf
Martian won four races for Stead and Mason in his seventeen starts, hampered by his immaturity, being half a year behind most of his generation, but they were all big races. At age three he won the CJC Challenge Stakes and the WRC North Island Challenge Stakes, both 7 furlongs. At age four he was one of four Stead horses Mason took to Sydney in the spring of 1904, where he ran second to the good New Zealand-bred filly Gladsome in the Spring Stakes, and several days later won the 3 mile Randwick Plate. Back at Riccarton for the spring meeting, he was part of the dominant Stead ten horse contingent that won twelve major races: Martian took the 2-1/4 mile Canterbury Cup, and Stead-owned Nightfall won the New Zealand Derby and the Oaks, Grand Rapids the New Zealand Cup, Machine Gun the Electric Plate and the Randolph Handicap, and Munjeet and Sun God were one-two in the Welcome Stakes.
After the Canterbury Cup Stead sold Martian to J.F. Buchanan, for whom he ran for one more season, placing several times, but not winning. Buchanan was born in Christchurch, and after serving a brief stint as an accountant, assumed management of his father's 15,000 acre Kinloch estate at Little River, Canterbury. He established his Kinloch Stud after purchasing Martian, who was the principal stallion at Kinloch until his death in 1927. Buchanan served as president of the Banks Peninsula Racing Club and was a steward of the Canterbury Jockey Club for a number of years.
Martian in the Stud
Martian became an incredibly successful stallion; his offspring won a total of £373,231, an Australasian record, and a New Zealand record until Foxbridge rose to prominence in the 1940s. He led the sires list seven times between 1913-14 and 1920-21, second only once in those years (to Demosthenes). He was a superior sire of stayers -- his offspring "almost had a mortage on the New Zealand Cup" -- and of many classic winners, including six Great Northern Derby winners, three New Zealand Derby winners, three New Zealand St. Leger winners, three New Zealand Oaks winners, and an AJC Derby winner. Four of his best sons were geldings -- Sasanof, Rapine, The Hawk, and Star Stranger -- and his other outstanding colts were unable to replicate his excellence in the breeding shed. His daughters, however, proved to be not only good runners, but good broodmares that proved influential in successive generations, and they boosted Martian to the position of leading sire of broodmares in 1926-27 and 1927-28.
Martian's first foals began racing in the 1909-1910 season as juveniles. DANUBE (1907, from Neva by Stepniak) was in this group, winning the four furlong CJC Welcome Stakes. He went on to win the 6 furlong ARC Royal Stakes and the Wanganui Guineas, and was the first horse to ever win both the Great Northern and New Zealand Derbies and the New Zealand St. Leger, a feat not repeated until 1926. His other wins included the WRC Champion Plate (10 furlongs) and the ARC Auckland Plate (12 furlongs). He was later a stallion of minor use in New Zealand. In the same crop as Danube was MARTINE (1907, out of Gipsy Maid by Gipsy Grand, a Non-stud book mare); she won the New Zealand Oaks, giving Martian two classic winners in his first crop. Martine's brother, BYRON (1908) would later win the Feilding Cup (12 furlongs).
Martian's next big winner was a brown colt of 1910, CHERUBINI, out of Grand Opera by Gipsy Grand. Cherubini won the New Zealand Derby and the Great Northern Derby in 1913-14, as well as the Auckland Plate (12 furlongs) and the Canterbury Cup (18 furlongs). He later went to Australia, where he won the VRC Australian Cup (18 furlongs) in 1916. His dam's sire, Gipsy Grand, a winner of the Dunedin Cup and other races at Dunedin, was a native-born son of imported Grandmaster and later a stallion at the famous Elderslie Stud (Oamaru) of his breeder, John Reid. In 1912 the stud was dispersed, and a number of mares, notably ones by Reid's successful native-born stallion Stepniak (by Nordenfeldt and bred by George Stead), found their way into Buchanan's stud. To the cover of Martian, Grand Opera also produced TANNHAUSER (1908), winner in 1913 of the Dunedin Cup and the CJC Metrpolitan Handicap (12 furlongs) and SOLDIER'S CHORUS (1907), a two-time winner of the Invercargill Cup. Another colt from this cross, ROSSINI (1916) was another winner the New Zealand Derby Stakes.
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Warstep and Reputation battle in the Auckland Cup
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WARSTEP (1910), from the Stepniak daughter Stepdancer, was one of Martian's great staying offspring, and the champion money earning horse of the 1914-15 season, and when she finished racing she briefly held the New Zealand record for career earnings by a mare (£10,190, soon to be eclipsed by Desert Gold). She was bred and raced by C.G. Dalgety, and trained by Riccarton-based trainer George "Murry" Aynsley, who had also schooled her dam to win the 1-1/2 mile Dunedin Cup twice. WARSTEP won every great staying race in New Zealand over the course of her career, sometimes carrying great imposts, and was an idol of the mid-teens with the racing public. She did inherit a quirky temperament, however, and if bumped or checked during a race, she would quit trying. Her career total was 12 wins, and she was placed second six times. |
Warstep's first win was as a juvenile in the 1912 DJC McLean Stakes. At age three she won the CJC G.G. Stead Memorial Cup (10 furlongs), the CJC Steward's Handicap, and the ARC Islington Plate. The next season, 1914-15, was her finest. She dead-heated with Indigo in the New Zealand Cup (12 furlongs), and then was third to the rising three-year-old star REPUTATION (see below) in the Stead Memorial Cup. At Ellerslie she won the Auckland Cup 16 furlongs) in a terrific stretch-run battle with REPUTATION, beating him by a half-head. She then ran second by 3/4 of a length to Merry Roe in the Islington Plate the next day, and won the Auckland Plate (12 furlongs) two days later. At Dunedin she won the 1-1/2 mile Dunedin Cup, carrying 9 st.-13 lbs., with the second-placed horse, Ogier, carrying 24 pounds less. This was followed by an easy 2-1/2 length win in the DJC Hazlett Memorial Plate (7 furlongs) the next day. She went on to win the 1-1/2 mile CJC Great Autumn Handicap, carrying 9 st.-11 lbs., and the WRC Trentham Gold Cup in the Australasian record time of 3:24.
At age five she had pretty much raced herself out of the handicaps: her 9 st.-5 lbs. in the New Zealand Cup put her in fourth place to Tangihou (carrying 6 st.-7 lbs.), but in the weight-for-age Canterbury Cup she won by five lengths, beating her old rivals Indigo and Balboa. In the G.G. Stead Memorial she could not catch the rising star Desert Gold (carrying 7 st. - 7 lbs), placing second by 1-1/2 lengths and carrying 8 st.-12 lbs. In the Auckland Cup, carring 9 st.-4 lbs., she damaged a suspensory and was pulled up. That was the end of her career on the turf.
She was a disappointment as broodmare, not bred to the best stallions, but her son, the gelded Footfall (1921, by Autumnus), bred and raced by Dalgety, was a good handicap winner of the Apprentice and Hagley Handicaps at Riccarton; the Coldstream Welter at Ashburton; the Courtnay Welter, Ashburton Handicap and Otaio Plate at Riccarton; the ARC Handicap, Dunedin Cup and Canterbury Midsummer Handicap. One of her daughters, Vanestep (1929, by Weathervane), produced the Wellington Cup winning filly Almora (1945, by Bulandshar).
WARSTEP had several good siblings. Her sister, STARDANCER (1909) won the 1912 CJC Steward's Handicap, and another sister, WARLOVE (1916) won the New Zealand Oaks in 1919. Their brother, WARDANCER (1913) took the Dunedin Guineas in 1916. STARDANCER later produced Auckland Cup winner Starland (1916) and New Zealand Oaks winner Starmist (1921), and her line bred on, with many good winners in New Zealand and Australia.
The Nordenfeldt daughter Stepfeldt, out of George Stead's imported mare Steppe (also dam of the great stallion Stepniak, a brother to Stepfeldt) won the Great Northern Derby in 1895. Twenty years later her small, courageous black son by Martian, REPUTATION (1911) won the same race near the end of his three-year-old season for his owner-breeder , Wairapa-based W.E. Bidwell of Featherstone, whose horses were trained by the then relatively new trainer, and former jockey, F.D. "Fred" Jones.
REPUTATION had won three races as a juvenile, including the WRC Wellington Stakes. At age three, in addition to the Great Northern Derby, he won the WRC Champion Plate, the Wanganui Guineas, the Hawke's Bay Guineas, the 2 - 1/4 mile Canterbury Cup (beating WARSTEP), and the 10 furlong CJC G.G. Stead Memorial Gold Cup several days after his Canterbury Cup win. He had been beaten into third by 1-1/2 lengths in the New Zealand Derby, to Balboa and First Flight, the latter interfering with his run, which bumped him up into second place. His season also included his second placing to WARSTEP in the Auckland Cup, and a few days later after winning the Great Northern Derby, he ran second to WARSTEP in the 1-1/2 mile Auckland Plate. Reputation was the undisputed champion three-year-old of 1914-15.
REPUTATION was taken to Australia, where he won the AJC Spring Stakes and in the fall of 1916 the AJC Autumn Stakes, after which he was sold as a stallion. He failed to get a single good flat racer.
ARDENVHOR (1912, out of Mary of Argyle, by leading sire Grafton) was one of Martian's six winners of the New Zealand Cup, which he won in 1916. His sister, MASCOT (1913), had two big wins -- the 1918 Auckland Cup and the 1919 Canterbury Cup; she ran in the colors of the brothers Vivian and Eric Riddiford, and was trained by Jack Lowe out of Endeavour Lodge at Trentham.
MASCOT'S stablemate -- and crop mate -- at Endeavour Lodge, also owned by the Riddifords, MENELAUS (1913, out of Lovelorn (imported in-utero), by Melton), was another of Martian's New Zealand Cup winners. In that 1917 race, the first three places went to Martian sons -- Menelaus, JOHNNY WALKER (1913, also owned by the Riddifords), and SNUB (1912). Menelaus had been purchased from Buchanan as a yearling for 430 guineas; the Riddifords paid just 50 guineas for his cropmate Johnny Walker. Menelaus also won the WRC Handicap (1 mile-3 furlongs), was third to Client in the Wanganui Cup (giving 9 pounds away), and in Australia was second to Gloaming in the 1918 Champion Stakes (10 furlongs). Menelaus' sister of 1915, LOVEMATCH, won the 1920 Hawke's Bay Cup (12 furlongs) and the 14 furlong Wanganui Cup in 1921; she was later dam of Auckland Cup winner Motere (1926), and second dam of Wellington Cup winner Old Bill (1935).
A third sibling out of Lovelorn, the bay filly NONES (1912), was purchased from Buchanan by George Greenwood, owner of Teviotdale Station, Canterbury, and of the great gelding Gloaming. She was a good filly, but came in a year of superior fillies, with Flying Start and the great Desert Gold in her age group. As a juvenile she ran second to Flying Start in the CJC Champagne Stakes, and second to Desert Gold in the Manawatu Sires Produce Stakes (6 furlongs), with Flying Start third. She won the Wanganui Guineas (8 furlongs), beating another Martian filly, BATTLE EVE (a juvenile winner of the CJC Welcome Stakes), but was beaten by 1-1/2 lengths in the New Zealand Derby by Desert Gold (SNUB was third), and also ran second to Desert Gold, by 3/4 of a length, in the New Zealand Oaks (won in record time).
Lovelorn had three additional daughters by Martian. LOVELOCK (1916) was second dam of Skipton (1938), winner in Australia of the Caulfield Cup, the Melbourne Cup and the VRC Derby; LEFT (1918) was a terrific producer, dam of New Zealand St. Leger winner Peter Jackson (1928), of Caulfield Cup winner Gaine Carrington (1929), and of Melbourne Cup winner Wotan (1932). Both these mares had good stakes winning descendants through the twentieth century. DOMINANT (1919), another Lovelorn -Martian daughter, produced the champion Beau Vite (1936, by Beau Pere), winner of many races in New Zealand and Australia, including the Auckland Cup, the New Zealand St. Leger, the Cox Plate, the AJC Plate and the AJC Craven Plate (setting an Australasian record for 1-1/4 miles), and later a useful sire in New Zealand.
The Lovelorn-Martian youngsters were 3 x 4 to Bend Or and 3 x 4 to Sheen: Lovelorn's dam, Hebrew Maid, was by the Bend Or son Orion, and out of Jewish Maid by Sheen. Hebrew Maid also produced JUDITH (1910), by Martian, dam of New Zealand Oaks winner Palestrina (1918), and her branch of Family 13- b continued through the twentieth century in New Zealand.
SNUB (1912), out of Lady Disdain by The Officer, was another good galloper in the 1912 crop. He was raced by C.G. Dalgety, breeder and owner of WARSTEP. He won the Dunedin Guineas, but, as noted ran third (and last) in the New Zealand Derby won by Desert Gold. He got better as he aged, winning the Canterbury Cup in 1918, and in Australia the VRC King's Plate (16 furlongs) and Governor's Plate, and back in New Zealand in 1920 the Auckland Plate (12 furlongs). His older sister, the small bay filly BEE (1911), won the WRC Handicap and the Wellington Cup in 1916, and the Dunedin Cup, carrying the top weight of 9 st.-2 lbs. in 1917 (beating her younger brother, Snub). Two days after her Dunedin Cup win she ran in the 7 furlong Hazlett Memorial, but carrying 9 st.-12 lbs., was beaten into second place.
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Sasanof
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SASANOF (1913), another popular stayer by Martian, was out of the non-winning mare Ukraine, by Stepniak. Ukraine's dam, Madder, had been a very good broodmare, producing the dual Auckland Cup winner All Red, the sprinter Munjeet, and Oaks winner Munjista, the latter the dam of Indigo, the horse that dead-heated with WARSTEP in the New Zealand Cup. Sasanof was purchased as a yearling from his New Zealand breeder, T.M. Wilford, for 400 guineas by George Stead's son, Wilfred, who sold a 1/3 interest in him to his friend, E.S. Luttrell a week before he ran in the Melbourne Cup. SASANOF, a small brown gelding, ran for seven seasons, won most of the major cup races in New Zealand, and became Martian's only Melbourne Cup winner in Australia.
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As a juvenile SASANOF won the Auckland Sylvia Handicap and the Hawke's Bay Stakes, and placed second or third in three other races, including the North Island Challenge Stakes, where he was beaten by the three-year-old mare Desert Gold. Taken to Australia in 1916-17, at age three, he won Randwick's AJC Spring Stakes and Tattersall's NSW Chelmsford Stakes, and was third to Shepherd King in the Caulfield Cup. He then beat a good field in the Melbourne Cup by 2-1/2 lengths, just missing the race record by 1/2 second, and going off at odds of 20:1. He was the second New Zealand-owned horse to win the race, and the first New Zealand bred, owned, and trained horse to win it. He was taken back to New Zealand, where he and The Toff were beaten by the great mare Desert Gold in Ellerslie's one mile Islington Plate, with Sasanof a length behind the mare. Sasanof then won the Great Northern Derby, barely beating The Toff, by Otterden's other good sire son, Boniform, owned by Wilfred's brother, G.L. Stead. A few days later The Toff edged out Sasanof in the Auckland Plate. In the Auckland Great Easter Handicap (7 furlongs), Sasanof, with a troubled start, ran second, giving the winner, Nystad, 18 pounds.
In 1917-18 SASANOF was back in Australia, where won the Flying Handicap at Canterbury Park (NSW), and the December Handicap at Rosehill. In New Zealand in the Auckland Cup he ran second to another Martian offspring, the filly MASCOT, who ran under the feather weight of 6 st-13lbs. to Sasanof's 9 st.-6 lbs. Sasanof took the New Zealand Cup and the G.G. Stead Memorial Stakes, in the latter beating the up-and-coming star Gloaming, and in 1919 at Trentham, won the WRC Gold Cup and the WRC Thompson Handicap, and then won the Awapuni Gold Cup. In the fall, he took the CJC Great Autumn Handicap (12 furlongs).
Sasanof began having trouble staying sound by the time the 1920-21 season rolled around. He beat Duo in the Awapuni Gold Cup (10 furlongs) and won the Hawke's Bay Jockey Club Ormond Memorial Gold Cup, and was beaten by a narrow margin by Windbag in the Trentham Gold Cup. In January of 1921 Sasanof, winner of £20,770, retired from the turf to become a hack for his owner, and then for Wilfred's son. He died unexpectedly in 1923, age ten. His sister, MARTUK (1911), bred on; 1966 Auckland Cup winner Apa was one of her descendants.
VAGABOND (1914) was bred by Buchanan from the mare Gipsy Girl, another daughter of Gipsy Grand out of Timaru Cup winner Marion (Family C - 18) that was later a broodmare in George Stead's stud. Vagabond was raced by K.S. Williams, and for him won the 1919 New Zealand Cup, yet another winner of that race by Martian. He showed early speed, winning the HBJC four furlong Hastings Stakes, and going on at age three to win the Avondale Guineas (8 furlongs), beating Rathlin and Mentmore, and three days later the Great Northern Guineas five lengths ahead of the three other horses in the race. The best he could do was third in the Great Northern Derby to Estland, but did just fine in the New Zealand Cup over 16 furlongs, going on in 1920 to win the ARC Handicap (12 furlongs). His brother, ASCULAPHUS (1912), was a winner of the Invercargill Cup.
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The Hawk
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THE HAWK (1918), from the Land League daughter Sparrow Hawk, was the brilliant sprinter-miler exception to the many Martian stayers. A champion in both New Zealand and Australia, beating the best sprinter-milers in both countries, his career was both successful and long; he won his last race -- number 31 -- when he was rising 13 years old. The Hawk, a "medium-size" gelding, was purchased as a yearling for 350 guineas by W.J. Douglas, but Douglas died before the end of 1922, and after running for the estate, The Hawk was purchased by New Zealand trainer J.M. "Jack" Cameron for 700 guineas.
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The Hawk ran ten times as a juvenile, winning six, and unplaced only once. At age three he won the WRC Telegraph Handicap (6 furlongs) carrying 8 st.-13 lbs., and a few days later broke the Australasian record for six furlongs by winning the Waterloo Stakes in 1:9-4/5. He also won the Hawke's Bay Guineas, the ARC Islington Plate (one mile), and the CJC Jockey Club Handicap (dead-heat).
In 1923-24 Cameron took him to Australia. He started out by winning the one mile Rosehill Stakes (weight-for-age), and went on to win the VATC St. George Stakes (9 furlongs, wfa) and Futurity Stakes (7 furlongs, wfa), and the VRC Essendon Stakes (1-1/4 miles, wfa) and C.M. Lloyd Stakes (1 mile, wfa). Due almost entirely to The Hawk's efforts in Australia in 1923-24, Martian placed eighth on the list of leading sires in Australia in terms of earnings; Martian had just four runners that season in Australia, and they won 12 high-class races with earnings of £14,423. The least number of winners of every other stallion on that 1923-24 top ten list was number one, Valais, who had 15 winners of 29 races worth £28,379. That season The Hawk put his owner tenth on the list of leading owners in Australia.
The next season, 1924-25, he won eight of his eighteen races, was second twice and third once; all but one of his runs were in Australia, and, with earnings of £8,569, added to the £948 won by another of Cameron's horses, put Cameron at number eight in the leading owner's list there. His wins included repeats of his triumphs in the Rosehill Stakes, the VATC St. George Stakes, and the VRC Essendon and C.M. Lloyd Stakes, plus the VATC Caulfield Stakes (9 furlongs), the Rosehill Rawson Stakes (9 furlongs wfa), and the Australian Jockey Club's All-Aged Stakes (8 furlongs, wfa) and Challenge Stakes (6 furlongs, handicap).
At the end of the season he was taken back to New Zealand to meet the grand old gelding Gloaming in the one mile Hawke's Bay J.D. Ormond Memorial Gold Cup at Hastings in May. The other two entries in the race bowed out, leaving it a match between the six-year-old The Hawk and Gloaming, then rising ten, and slated for retirement after the race. Thousands of spectators descended on Hastings to view the race, with special trains scheduled to carry the overload; people crammed the racecourse, climbed on the stands roof, and clung to fencing around the track to catch their last look at Gloaming on the turf. The Hawk passed Gloaming after the start and led by two lengths until the half-mile post, when Gloaming caught up, running at The Hawk's hindquarters. As they turned for home, Gloaming engaged his famous lengthened stride, and pulled past The Hawk, beating him by a length in record time, his fifty-seventh win in sixty-seven starts. No shame was attached to The Hawk for this loss, and he was roundly cheered for giving Gloaming such a good run.
While Gloaming retired, The Hawk went on to run to the age of 13, mostly in New Zealand. His wins in these years were fewer, but he was well-placed in many races. In 1927 he won the WRC Metropolitan Handicap and the Taranaki Stakes (6 furlongs), and in 1928 won the Taranaki Stakes a second time, and in 1930, age 12, won the Taranaki Cup (12 furlongs). At age 13 he ran his thirty-first, and last, win, in the Dannevirke Cup.
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Rapine
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RAPINE (1919), was the champion money-winning New Zealand horse in 1925-26. He was another small, good, gelded staying son of Martian's, and like many Martians not very tall, described as "...a wonderfully good little fellow. His lack of size in mainly a matter of inches in his height for he is better furnished than many horses half a hand higher." His dam was Buchanan's imported Irish mare Pineta, by Epsom Derby winner Spearmint, another horse with questionable legs. He was purchased as a yearling by A.B. Williams, a big east coast landowner who had one of the largest racing stables in the country at Gisborne in the 1920s; his trainer was J.H. Jefferd, and his jockey in most of his races was Roy Reed. STAR STRANGER (see below) was another champion Martian son trained by Jefferd and owned by Williams.
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Rapine won the Great Northern Champagne Stakes as a juvenile. At age three he showed true Martian form. He won the Avondale Guineas, and after the turn of the year (1923) won the Auckland Plate (12 furlongs), but was beaten into second in the Great Northern Derby by the excellent filly Enthusiasm, and a few weeks later he won the 12 furlong Wellington Cup. After failing in the Easter Handicap at Auckland, he won the Great Northern St. Leger (14 furlongs), beating Enthusiasm by three lengths (by then she had also won the New Zealand Derby and the New Zealand Oaks), and followed that by victories in the New Zealand St. Leger and the Trentham Gold Cup at Wellington. Then Williams and Jefferd took him to Australia, where he won Tattersall's NSW Chelmsford Stakes (9 furlongs).
While in Australia in 1924 he won the Autumn Stakes (12 furlongs), the Cumberland Stkaes (14 furlongs) and the AJC Plate (18 furlongs), all at Randwick, and the Napier Cup. In 1925-26, back in New Zealand, he was second to The Banker in the Canterbury Cup, and was second to Runnymede, a three-year-old, the CJC G.G. Stead Memorial Cup (10 furlongs). He won the CJC Metropolitan Handicap (12 furlongs), carrying 9 st.-7 lbs., and at Auckland won the Auckland Cup (16 furlongs), carrying 9st.-8 lbs.. That season he also won the WRC Trentham Gold Cup, and the Awapuni Gold Cup. His efforts this season placed him at the top of the leading money winners in New Zealand, and Williams was leading owner (also assisted by STAR STRANGER'S efforts).
The next season he ran under some crushing weights, but still managed to win some good races. He took the Auckland Summer Cup carrying 10 st.-3 lbs., and the Hawke's Bay Cup (12 furlongs) loaded at 10 st.-7 lbs. In the Wellington Cup, carrying 10 st.-2 lbs., the best he could do was third to Rapier and Ten monanui, but he beat a really good field that included Count Cavour, the good staying mare Piuthair, and STAR STRANGER. His last big win was the Wanganui Cup (14 furlongs) in 1929.
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Star Stranger
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STAR STRANGER (1922) was a gelded dark brown son of the 1919 Great Northern Oaks winner Star Lady (Family C - 3), by Demosthenes. He was also owned by A.B. Williams and trained by J.H. Jefferd, and, like his older stablemate, RAPINE, he would become the leading money winning horse in New Zealand, in 1927-28, yet another superior stayer and weight-carrier. He was the last of Martian's big champions, but Martian's grandchildren, Cuddle and Beau Vite, would each take the premiership in the 1930s.
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As a juvenile he won a maiden plate at Avondale and a Queen's Plate at Auckland. At age three he was very successful, and his wins that year (in New Zealand and Australia), combined with the earnings of RAPINE, made Williams the untouchably successful leading owner of 1925-26 in New Zealand. His wins included the Great Northern Derby, beating the New Zealand Oaks winner Mandane by a short head. He ran second to Mask in the Great Northern St. Leger, but he beat WARSTEP's son, Footfall, the only other runner, in the New Zealand St. Leger. He went on to win the WRC Autumn Handicap, the Hawke's Bay Cup (dead-heat), the Wellington Racing Club Handicap and the Australian Jockey Club Metropolitan Handicap (13 furlongs) at Randwick, beating Pantheon and other good horses.
In 1927-28 he, along with another good horse, Rapier, were the dominant stayers in New Zealand. They met in the New Zealand Cup, won by Rapier, carrying 7 st.-12 lbs., with Star Stranger second by two lengths carrying the big impost of 9 st.-4 lbs. A few days later Star Stranger won the ARC Handicap. Star Stranger went to Trentham, where he won the Wellington Cup (12 furlongs), carrying 9 st.-8 lbs. Rapier and Star Stranger met again in the two mile Trentham Gold Cup (wfa), which Star Stranger won in Australasian record time. He went on to win the Awapuni Gold Cup, beating the season's top three-year-old, Satrap.
He ran on one more season, placing in several good races, including a heart-breaking second to Concentrate in the Auckland Cup by a head, and winning two races, the WRC Trentham Gold Cup and the President's Handicap, carrying 9 st.-9 lbs. at Ellerslie.
Martian got many other winners of both important and minor races. Of those not mentioned above, there are a few more that should be noted.
The Treadmill (native-born son of Bill of Portland) daughter Discipline, out of Madowla by leading sire Trenton, bred two good runners by Martian. The gelded ADJUTANT (1912) won the Dunedin Champagne Stakes as a juvenile, and was, like The Hawk, more of a sprinter-miler than a stayer. His other wins included the CJC Autumn Handicap (8 furlongs), the 1916 WRC Autumn Handicap (11 furlongs), and the 1917 WRC Handicap (11 furlongs). His older sister, COURT MARTIAL (1911) was another winner of the New Zealand Oaks, and later bred the gelded Valdes (1921) a winner of the VRC Standish Handicap in Australia.
ROYAL STAR (1914), from Victoria, by Pilgrim's Progress, won the New Zealand Cup in 1921 for G.L. Rutherford. WARPLANE (1916, out of Adelicia, by Charlemagne II) won the North Island Challenge Stakes (7 furlongs) and the Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes (6 furlongs) in 1919, and the 10 furlong Taranaki Cup. He was later a stallion, but his only good runner was Red Heckle, a winner of the Great Northern Derby. STAR RANGER (1920) won the 1925 Avondale Cup and the WRC Handicap, both 11 furlongs; he was out of a good race mare, Gipsy Belle (1905, by Stepniak), who had shown speed in winning the WRC Telegraph Handicap, the ARC Railway Handicap and the WRC Thompson Handicap. MARTARMA (1924, from the imported Picton daughter Per Ama) won the Great Northern Derby for J. Porter in 1928; he was later a modest stallion in New Zealand, getting the brothers Martara (Taranaki Cup) and Kevin (New Zealand Cup). MELEE (1915, out of Dunedin Champagne Stakes winner Formless, by Multiform) was another sprinter-miler, winner of the 7 furlong Timaru Cup (also won by Martian's 1908 son THRAX), and the WRC Handicap (11 furlongs) and the Hamilton Cup (now Waikato Gold Cup, 12 furlongs). CUPIDON (1918, out of the Bezonian daughter Bebe) won the AJC Derby in Australia in 1921.
The Stepniak daughter Nantes (1896) was a very good broodmare, producing New Zealand Oaks winner Artillerie that won the Caulfield Stakes in Australia twice and Dunedin Cup winner Prim. To the cover of Martian she bred the brown filly NANNA (1914), winner of the ARC Railway Handicap and the WRC Telegraph Handicap, and MARSA (1911). Marsa ran until 1918-19, winning the Dunedin McLean Stakes in 1913, the Timaru Cup in 1917, and the Invercargill Cup in 1919. In the stud of the Kain brothers she was bred to Night Raid (the sire of Phar Lap), and produced the terrific stayer Nightmarch (1925), winner of 24 races and placed second 29 times (five times to Phar Lap). In New Zealand his best wins were the New Zealand Derby, the Canterbury Cup, the Trentham Gold Cup, and Dunedin Cups, and in Australia the Melbourne Cup (carrying 9 st. -2 lbs., with Phar Lap third), the Cox Plate and the VRC Autumn Stakes twice. He was a useful stallion at the New Zealand Ladbrooks Stud of his owner, Alfred Louisson, but was never better than sixth on the leading sires lists, his best the fillies Serenata (New Zealand Cup in record time) and Regal Praise (Great Northern Oaks and St. Leger), and the good jumpers Dawn March and Desert Trek. He got some good producing daughters, including Mabel Rose, the dam of the champion stayer Beaumaris.
In addition to the good-producing daughters of mentioned above, Martian also got CARESS (1920, out of imported Trichas, by Thrush). She produced Padishah (1930), winner of the Hawke's Bay Cup, the Wellington Cup and the CJC Metropolitan Handicap, and Cuddle (1929, by Psychology), one of New Zealand's all-time best staying, weight-carrying mares and champion money earner in 1935-36. Her many wins included the Auckland Cup twice in succession, easily winning both times under high weight while setting a race record each time; the New Zealand Cup, the Wellington Cup, the Canterbury Cup, the Auckland King's Plate twice, and in Australia, the AJC All-Aged Stakes and Doncaster Handicap, and the VATC St. George Stakes. Cuddle produced two good winners, Beau Cheval (1941, winner of the WRC Thorndon Handicap and CJC Challenge Stakes, and in Australia the Adelaide Cup and Adelaide Birthday Cup), and Gamble (1939, winner of the Timaru Cup).
MARTIAN PRINCESS (1911, from the Stepniak daughter Two Step) was another successful broodmare daughter of Martian's. She produced the lovely chestnut horse Laughing Prince (1924, by Quantock) and two daughters that bred on. Laughing Prince won 20 races for Thomas Duncan -- including the Avondale Guineas, the Canterbury Cup, the G.G. Stead Gold Cup, the WRC Autumn Handicap and the 7 furlong Wanganui Eclipse Stakes four times -- and the famous Laughing Prince Lodge at Awapuni was named in his honor. The Martian Princess daughter Princess Pat 1918, by All Black) was dam of New Zealand St. Leger winner Lady Pam, and her descendants were winning good races in the late twentieth century. Another Martian Princess daughter, North Star (1926, by Great Star) bred Victoria Oaks winner East End and her brother Sirius, who won the Melbourne Cup.
Lady Lucy (1905, by Seaton Delaval, Family C - 3) was a good winner of the New Zealand Cup. In addition to being second dam of STAR STRANGER (see above), she was also the dam of Martian's foals NAOS (1921, winner of the VATC Coongy Handicap), LUCINETTE (1920) and LUCINDA (1922), the latter an ancestress of Auckland Cup winner Tamboura (1973). LUCINETTE was third dam of the two good stayers by Balloch -- Crimson King (1948, Wellington Cup) and Balfast (1953, New Zealand Cup).
Martian spent his entire stud career at Buchanan's Kinloch Stud, which was operated more as a hobby farm than a commercial thoroughbred nursery, making Martian's success all the more impressive, as Buchanan was happy to breed Martian to unproven mares belonging to his friends. He did not race many horses himself, and most of those he bred by Martian were sold as yearlings. Martian was an active stallion, although slowing down, up to the end of his life, getting several youngsters born in 1926 and 1927. In the winter of 1926-27 he developed a paralysis of his hind end, and on July 26, 1927 he died of "complications" from it, four days before his owner died in London.
Martian was the last great sire of stayers in New Zealand, which was finally moving on, like the rest of the thoroughbred breeding world, to the production of fast, early-maturing horses that could at best get a classic distance. It's telling that his son, The Hawk, frequently referred to as a sprinter -- and he did win many short races brilliantly -- also won the 1-1/4 mile VRC Essendon Stakes twice. Martian was supplanted in the leading sires list in New Zealand by the brilliant Sundridge son, the sprinter Absurd, who led the lists five times (1921-22 through 1926-27, except for 1924-25 when Solferino's outstanding staying gelding, Count Cavour, put him on top) and whose many precocious, sprinting offspring seldom won over 8 furlongs. Martian's daughters, however, continued to influence bloodstock breeding in New Zealand, and well into the end of the twentieth century their descendants were still winning classic races and the famous handicaps and weight-for-age distance races that Martian's sons and daughters had so dominated generations before.
-- by Patricia Erigero
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