By All Black from Aurarius, Desert Gold was trained by Fred Davis for Mr T.H. (Tom) Lowry; the first of three Tom Lowry’s to be the squire of Okawa Stud in the Hawke’s Bay. Just as Gloaming’s sequence of 19 would have been much longer but for an unexpected defeat, Desert Gold’s would have been 22 but for a close second at weight-for-age against the older horses at her second-last start as a two-year-old. She won her final start that season and then proceeded through her three-year-old season unbeaten in 14 starts.

As a four-year-old Desert Gold took her sequence through to 19 with weight-for-age wins at Trentham, Ellerslie and Riccarton. At five she was still the weight-for-age queen – she won the Awapuni Gold Cup at three, four and five years – and she made several trips to Australia where, during those First World War years, she was tremendously popular through her owner donating her winnings to the War Relief Fund.

At six years of age, coming to the end of her wonderful career, Desert Gold had three virtual match races on the then-strong Taranaki circuit with the rising young star Gloaming. She beat him in the first, but Gloaming had got tangled in the tapes at the start; Gloaming won the next “match” but this time Desert Gold lost lengths when her half-brother Croesus fell in front of her. Finally the decider, the Hawera Stakes; and, with no excuses either way this time, the three-year-old Gloaming was too good for the mare. Desert Gold was retired after a few more starts (which included an easy win in the Manawatu Stakes), hugely popular with the public to the end.

40 starts, 17 wins (six at Group One), 10 seconds, 2 thirds. NZ$3,411,682, A$625,000

Horlicks, by Three Legs out of Malt, won 17 of her 40 starts, chalking up six Group One victories in three countries. She won both the million-dollar DB Draught Classic and the New Zealand Stakes twice.

In the spring of 1989 she won the weight-for-age Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington and followed it up three weeks later with a win in the $3 million Japan Cup (2400m) in world record time for trainers Dave and Paul O'Sullivan.

She was retired from racing the following year, with career earnings of $A3.2 million.

A super  mare on the track, Horlicks later became a very successful broodmare. At stud she left 13 foals with Brew, the winner of the Melbourne Cup in 2000, the most notable. One of her daughters, Latte, produced the 2007 AJC Australian Derby winner Fiumicino

Horlicks died peacefully at Cambridge stud in August 2011 and is buried at her owner breeder Graham de Gruchy’s Hawke’s Bay property.

During a career constantly impeded by unsoundness, Kindergarten (Kincardine-Valadore) raced till he was nine but had just 35 starts. He won 25 of them, including among his wins three of the greatest weight-carrying performances of his or any era.
Unarguably the best three-year-old of 1940-41, when he won the last 10 of his 13 starts, Kindergarten lined up at that age in the ARC Easter Handicap. No respecter of youth, handicapper Frank McManemin gave the three-year-old 9st 11lb (62kg). That was 16lb – about seven kg – above weight-for-age. Near the back of a capacity field in the running, Kindergarten stormed home to win the big mile by a head. Two days later he won the Great Northern St Leger at a mile and three-quarters (2800m). After breaking down in Australia and missing most of his four-year-old season, Kindergarten was patched up to tackle the Easter again, this time with 10st 3lb (65kg). Again he came from near last to win. In the spring of 1942, a Melbourne Cup bid was planned for a five-year-old Kindergarten. But the dangers and uncertainties of wartime shipping kept him at home and, on a seemingly light preparation, he tackled the Auckland Cup instead under 10st 2lb (64.5kg). In the hands of Bert Ellis, Kindergarten took the lead under his big weight five furlongs (1000m) from home, dropped the bit again, then accelerated away in the straight to win by five lengths.
Though Kindergarten never got the chance to prove his class in Australia, the opinion held of him by the Melbourne handicapper can be ascertained. For three successive Melbourne Cups he accorded Kindergarten top weight at 9st 10lb, 9st 13lb and 10st 6lb respectively. Let 30-year handicapper Frank McManemin pass verdict: “The best horse I ever handicapped was Kindergarten. Not only that, he was the best horse I have ever seen.”

Race Record:
35 starts, 25 wins, 3 thirds

Cambridge Stud is the proud inductee sponsor of Kindergarten. Cambridge Stud is the premier privately owned and operated stud farm in the world and presently stands the Champion sire - Zabeel, Stravinsky and new sires - Keeper, One Cool Cat and Viking Ruler. For further information please call 07-827-7887