146 RACEHORSES IN AUSTRALIA 



South Australia does not produce a great number of Thoroughbreds, but 

 quality is very much in evidence in the yearling drafts which are annually sold 

 in Victoria by Messrs. J. H. Aldridge and R. M. Hawker. Richmond Park, 

 owned by the Aldridges, has been famous as a Thoroughbred nursery for 

 many years, and has been remarkably successful in insistently producing good 

 winners. The sires now in use are Pistol, by Carbine, imported some years 

 ago; St. Anton, by St. Frusquin; and Lucknow, by Minoru. Mr. L. F. 

 Aldridge, who manages Richmond Park, is a practical enthusiast who leaves 

 nothing to chance. Mr. R. M. Hawker comes of a South Australian family 

 famous as sheep breeders, but he has shown that he can breed Thoroughbreds 

 equally as well, and his young Cyklons are proving themselves on the 

 racecourse. 



Western Australia for years barely attempted to produce the home-grown 

 article in the Thoroughbred, but recently Messrs. P. A. Connelly, D. Grant 

 and others have started breeding with success, and wth others following 

 their example the West should more than hold their own against horses bred 

 in the other States. 



The Thoroughbred studs of Queensland are more or less confined to a 

 very rich tract of country knov/n as the Darling Downs, situated w^ithin easy 

 reach of the New South Wales border. Here Mr. C. E. McDougall has that 

 fine property Lyndhurst, where he has been breeding winners for many years. 

 Lyndhurst has been particularly fortunate in its stallions, for Ladurlad (imp.). 

 Syce (imp.) and Seremond (imp.) have all been stud successes. Syce in 

 particular being a really great sire. Another English importation in Chante- 

 merle, by Polymelus, is now at Lyndhurst in company with Seremond; and 

 the stud sends drafts of yearlings annually to the Sydney sales, where they sell 

 exceptionally well. Mr. J. H. S. Barnes, a member of a well-known New South 

 Wales family of horse-breeders and pastoralists, recently bought the Canning 

 Downs property near Warwick, on the Darling Downs, and has imported 

 Highfield, by William the Third, at the head of his stud of select mares 

 established there. Other well-know^n Queensland breeders in Messrs. M. 

 Ryan and W. Glasson are producing winners, and the future of the Thorough- 

 bred in the Northern State seems brighter than it has been for many years. 



Thoroughbred horse breeding seems to be on the increase in nearly all 

 the States, and though the modern Australian Thoroughbred may not be as 

 tough an animal as his early progenitors, or possess their staying powers, he is, 

 taken all round, a sounder horse than is produced in any other part of the 

 world to-day. The few horses that have been sent to England from Australia 

 have more than held their own both on the racecourses and at the stud, and 

 it is to be hoped that the demand from home for the good staying Waler will 

 be revived. 



