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Journal of the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies, Volume 1, Issue 5, October 1985

Nelson Racing in the Early Days

page 19

Nelson Racing in the Early Days

Racing in Nelson got off to an early start. When H. A. Thompson, the first Magistrate, stepped ashore from the Brougham, on March 6, 1842, he was accompanied by a valuable brood mare, Emilia. She was a thoroughbred, sired by Emilius, and had narrowly escaped injury not long before landing. When negotiating French Pass the ship hit a rock and was thrown on to her beam ends, and four working bullocks fell on top of the mare. Never a sweet-tempered man, Thompson flew into a frenzy, but luckily the mare came to no harm and foaled Il Barbiere whose progeny reads like a page of Grand Opera. Among them were Figaro, Zingara and Strop, all winners on both sides of the Tasman.

At the end of 1842 came Henry Redwood, Junior. When he arrived with his parents, brothers and sisters, on the George Fife, December 12, 1842, he was 20, already an experienced racing man. The family settled and farmed in what is now Redwoods Valley, some 24 kilometres from Nelson. Henry left his mark on the New Zealand racing scene, establishing the first stud in the Dominion. He is known here and abroad as the Father of the New Zealand Turf.

The first race meeting, almost the first in New Zealand, took place on February 1, 1843. This first Anniversary Day was celebrated by much more than a horse race. At nine there was a regatta with whaling boats and Maori canoes, followed by racing at eleven. Four horses were entered: Captain Wakefield's Slyboots, ridden by H. A. Thompson; Mr Duppa's Hairtrigger, ridden by the owner; Mr Weightman's Lottery, ridden by Mr Thorpe and Mr Tinline's Cannonball, ridden by Mr Rutter. The course was a hazardous one with hurdles. The starting barrier was in Trafalgar Street by the then cricket ground, possibly by the Hardy Street traffic lights. The course ran around the east side of Church Hill, turning sharply into Examiner Street and down into Waimea Road, now Rutherford Street through the flax swamps downhill to Hardy Street and back to the start. It was an exciting race, Lottery falling, but without injury, Hairtrigger, the favourite, winning by a length from Slyboots. It is sad to remember that both Captain Wakefield and H. A. Thompson were killed in the Wairau Massacre in June of the same year.

One more race was held on that course on Anniversary Day 1844. Then in January, 1846, a note appeared in the Examiner under the heading 'Anniversary Fete. Horse Racing' … this will come off on the Waimea Plains, on last year's course, about 4 miles from the Courthouse. Races continued there for nearly 30 years until they moved to Richmond, the third and the present site.

On March 18, 1848, this notice appeared in the Examiner: 'Gentlemen desirous of forming a Jockey Club are requested to meet at the Wakatu Hotel. Dinner will be on the table promptly at six.' Ten good men and true responded: Messrs Baigent, Barnes, a veterinarian, Finney, Franklin, Harley, Jones, Hamilton, Lynch, Trask and Wadsworth. Thus the Nelson Jockey Club was formed. Their home from then on was the Stoke Race Course, which ran roughly between the Turf Hotel and Nayland Road. Until page 20quite recently, about fifty metres of curved hedge, part of the original course fence could be seen just south of the Songer Street intersection. One old resident, Mr Chisnall, senior, recalled that as a boy he used to climb a tree near the course to get a good view. The railway line ran right through the course and was packed with sawdust on race days. Patrons of the Turf Hotel can look on to the old site beyond the beer garden and imagine the thundering hoofs of 130 years ago. The stewards named for the Stoke meeting of 1846 were E. W. Stafford, J. Smith and Henry Redwood.

An early race meeting, Stoke, 1860s. — N.P.M.

An early race meeting, Stoke, 1860s. — N.P.M.

Henry Redwood is the giant of the early New Zealand racing scene. For some years after his arrival he pioneered with his father establishing the farm, and for a few years running a butcher's shop in Nelson. But after 1850 he concentrated on his chief love, racing, establishing his stud on his property on the Waimeas. He exercised his horses on Rabbit Island, on what is still known as the Tick Tock track, where he meticulously timed them. The original home, Hednesford, built after his marriage in 1845, though much altered, still stands.

Redwood's colours, red and black, soon became known in Australasia. He raced them, thinking nothing of the sea journeys, in Nelson, Christchurch, page 21Dunedin and Sydney. As a breeder he was known in France having bought French sires, later returning some of their progney. A note in the Examiner, 1866 reads 'Mr Redwood's stud is outstanding. No gentleman has a finer lot of brood mares south of the Line, except perhaps Mr Fisher's Maribyrnong Stud in Victoria. He has as valuable a stud as could be found in any British colony'. One of his best, Ladybird, won the first Interdominion Cup, in 1863 in Dunedin, defeating Mormon, the favourite from Melbourne. Mormon had come second in the first ever Melbourne Cup in 1861, won by Archer. A son of Redwood's Hercules, a stallion imported from Sydney, The Barb, won the Melbourne Cup in 1866. And Hi-Jinx, part-owned in Nelson won it in 1960. So Nelson has long had some connection with the best in racing.

Henry Redwood was a man of integrity, and rarely made money. Once he raced and sold Strop in Sydney, but, not being satisfied with its treatment by the new owner, he bought Strop back at a loss, and brought the old fellow home to honourable retirement in Nelson. All Redwood horses ran to win, and win they did over sixty years. Redwood won 2 Wellington Cups, 3 Marlborough Cups, 2 Dunedin Cups, 2 Canterbury Cups, 4 Nelson Cups and the Interdominion Cup.

The original Redwood stables built of bricks made on the property can still be seen on the left of the coast road to Motueka, just past the Rabbit Island turn-off. The lovely old pink brick building, although upgraded as an historic place, still needs restoration to preserve it as a memorial to Nelson racing in its heyday.

Recently, the Nelson Jockey Club has suffered a slump, but it is now on the come-back trail, and who knows, Nelson may someday again be a name to be reckoned with in racing circles.