Flower O'Clutha won 18 races in the 1903/04 season. Admittedly they were all fairly minor events, but a record is a record.  Ten more wins in another three seasons gave her a total of 28 career wins, still many behind the New Zealand career wins of Grey Way (50) and Black Duke (46).

Marine Base at Pukekohe Racecourse
Up to 1800 American marines were stationed at the Pukekohe racecourse during World War II.  The club raced at Te Rapa in those years. Also then, Pukekohe produced many vegetables, the Hastings course had big pea crops and at Takapuna, although they no longer raced, they were into growing onions in a big way. 

Wow! What A Place Divvy
In 1966, Conjurer paid £102/7/6 for a place when narrowly beaten at Pukekohe.  He was the outsider in a 17 horse field and ridden by Don Cameron.  Not quite the biggest dividend, though. Royal Victory paid £112/19/6 at Waterlea in 1950.

USA Introduced Ready To Run
Ready To Run sales, where potential buyers get to see their prospective purchases run down the straight, started in Florida, U.S.A. in 1960.

Dispute Over First Horse Float
There are conflicting views as to when the first horse float appeared here, but this quote from the ‘N.Z. Referee' places its first appearance in 1921. "The latest innovation in horse transport is a trailer with pneumatic tyres to be attached to the rear of a motorcar for transporting horses."

Bonus For Tote Operators
It was not until 1907, after narrowly being passed in Parliament, that clubs were made to calculate dividends to the nearest sixpence (five cents). Beforehand it was the nearest shilling (10 cents), although some clubs had paid to the nearest sixpence for years.  The unpaid fractions used to go to the totalisator proprietors who had the contract to operate the tote. They must have made a lot of money!

"They're Not Dogs!"
Hunting enthusiasts were appalled in 1913 when a Taranaki farmer, Mr A. Lepperton, called the hounds "dogs.:"  He was fined £1 by the North Taranaki Hunt Club.

It's All In A Name
Looking back at racing I have come across some rather wonderfully named horses.  Here are just a few:  Cheap Lodging (by Friday night - Clink), Crinkle (Paper Money - Smiling Eyes), Ranji (Cricket Bat - High Rank), Piccolo (Inflation - Sweet Music), Straight Left (Winning Hit - Competition), Tendaman (Gustavo - Saxophone), Overboard (Neptune - Foxleap), Pack Drill (Defaulter - Battledress), Pontoon (Foxbridge - Hoyle), Declare (Defaulter - Straight Bat), Hickory Stick (Equipped - Schoolgirl), Confetti ( Paper Boy - Wedding Eve), Final Embrace (Finis - Cuddle), Twitter (Salmagundi - Twirp), Loud Checks (Tweed II - Outcry), Terminate (Finis - Wild Fox).
My favourite, though, was a trotter named Coming Down (Ripcord - Pardon Me).  He won the first race at the inaugural Auckland night trots meeting when driven by master horseman Maurice Holmes.

Those Early Pioneers Of Racing
I thought it would be interesting for those of us who spend a lot of time each week trying to sort our winners to look back and read about who was to blame nearly 300 years ago for starting this time and money consuming thing they call racing.
The British thoroughbred goes back to the pure Arab horse.  The Greenwood family from Canterbury had great success in the first half of last century winning the New Zealand Cup in 1911 with Vice Admiral, Wellington Cups in 1911 and 1939 with Miss Mischief and Defaulter respectively, an Auckland Cup in 1919 with Karo, the New Zealand Derby in 1927, 1929 and 1938 with Agrion, Honour and Defaulter, Great Northern Derbys in 1911, 1914 and 1919 with Danube, Cherebin and Gloaming, plus a host of major races both here and in Australia. 
However, in 1926 Mr C.D. Greenwood missed an opportunity to add to the family's impressive list when Mr. S.J. Gibbons offered to sell him two young horses Oratrix and Concentrate.  He declined and Mr. R.J. Murphy, from Wellington, bought them both.  Oratrix went on to win the 1928 New Zealand Cup and Concentrate won the 1929 Auckland Cup and 1930 Wellington Cup, as well as the Great Northern Derby and St. Leger.