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Bit Of A Yarn

The Mighty Gammalite


Walt

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39 minutes ago, Walt said:

Very nice Walt 🏆. The Australian 'Cardigan Bay' was old 'Gammalite'. 

First to the $1,000,000  Dollars💰 down-under in Prizemoney. Main rivals Pure Steel and Popular Alm didn't quite make it to get there first.  

Cardy the first Standardbred in the world to get to the Million. Both won the Interdominion too bless them. 

Very fitting being trained by a dairy Farmer too,  as he Kept trying that hard in all his races and kept giving till the Cows come home. 

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11 hours ago, Gammalite said:

Very nice Walt 🏆. The Australian 'Cardigan Bay' was old 'Gammalite'. 

First to the $1,000,000  Dollars💰 down-under in Prizemoney. Main rivals Pure Steel and Popular Alm didn't quite make it to get there first.  

Cardy the first Standardbred in the world to get to the Million. Both won the Interdominion too bless them. 

Very fitting being trained by a dairy Farmer too,  as he Kept trying that hard in all his races and kept giving till the Cows come home. 

He was a beauty alright with a big ticker. I wondered how tempted they were to grab a few more wins and take him up to the 100 mark. Very few ever reach that mark.

Gammalite in an era of magnificent horses deserves to be called a champion. 

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3 hours ago, Freda said:

Gee, the whip use would be frowned upon now.

Good point Freda.

I remember watching Popular Alm who was another might warrior and thinking Vin Knight was not shy with the whip. Different era of course with different rules but as you say they wouldn't allow it now. They'd still be magnificent horses but the rules would have applied to all so unsure how many races these champs would not have won with todays rules....if any.

If we go back to the 1985 NZ Cup, you'll see some great performances from the winner and runner up both driven by champion drivers who I have considerable respect for on and off the track. Having said that, if that race was run today with today's rules, both would have been DQ'd.

 

 

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10 hours ago, Freda said:

Gee, the whip use would be frowned upon now.

It's quite an interesting arguement .

The thoroughbreds used to get a fair old whacking from Cassidy , Dittman and co around that era as well. Looked like they were hitting hard at times too.

My theory is to do with the constitution of the best horse's in that era.

With the standardbreds I found a Lot (Most) of the Top class stayers that won a lot of those Cup races and were often driven with great vigour (and lots of whip use) through the 70's and early 80's,  were nearly all Stallions. Gammalite, Koala King, Pure Steel, Paleface Adios , Popular Alm , Hondo Grattan, Lightning Blue, San Simeon , and many many others ..All driven with great 'Gusto' by their Australian drivers. 

The Stallions are a VERY Hardy Beast and are quite happy/Able .. to cop the Hard driving . and bounce back straight away after a run/race seemingly No trouble at All . A few of them had near 200 career race starts !!🏆  the hardest horses ever.

Geldings and mares would not take it so well , so usually the best 'mares' of those Day were in Nz with much 'kinder' better drivers ( e.g Armalight, Delightful Lady,  Bonnie's Chance and others).

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19 minutes ago, Gammalite said:

It's quite an interesting arguement .

The thoroughbreds used to get a fair old whacking from Cassidy , Dittman and co around that era as well. Looked like they were hitting hard at times too.

My theory is to do with the constitution of the best horse's in that era.

With the standardbreds I found a Lot (Most) of the Top class stayers that won a lot of those Cup races and were often driven with great vigour (and lots of whip use) through the 70's and early 80's,  were nearly all Stallions. Gammalite, Koala King, Pure Steel, Paleface Adios , Popular Alm , Hondo Grattan, Lightning Blue, San Simeon , and many many others ..All driven with great 'Gusto' by their Australian drivers. 

The Stallions are a VERY Hardy Beast and are quite happy/Able .. to cop the Hard driving . and bounce back straight away after a run/race seemingly No trouble at All . A few of them had near 200 career race starts !!🏆  the hardest horses ever.

Geldings and mares would not take it so well , so usually the best 'mares' of those Day were in Nz with much 'kinder' better drivers ( e.g Armalight, Delightful Lady,  Bonnie's Chance and others).

All the top horses have a high pain tolerance.  That's why they are top horses.

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