Family C-25: Dudu

This family is still active, largely in New Zealand, with a number of classic and Cup winners part of its heritage, and some good recent stakes winners keeping it vital.

Dudu was a bay mare bred in 1846 in New South Wales and imported into New Zealand by John S. MacFarlane, an Auckland banker who was chairman of the inaugural committee of the Auckland Racing Club and a part-owner in the Auckland Stud Company with the Morrin brothers and others. The New Zealand stud book only notes that she was from "imported parents."

It is possible Dudu was a daughter or grandaughter of a grey mare, named Dudu, born in Great Britain in 1834, out of Fille de Joie (by Filho da Puta) and by Sultan, bred by Col. Peel, and sold to "Mr. [Henry] Kater and sent to New South Wales." Kater arrived in Sydney in 1839 on the Euphrates, a bark he had chartered, which carried livestock and about ten thoroughbreds. According to Binney, he leased Charles Smith's Bungarribee property. This grey Dudu produced one or two daughters also named Dudu, one by Cap-a-pie (1837, by The Colonel out of a sister to Cactus, imported by Kater), and one known as Young Dudu, by the native-bred Lawson's Tros (by Tros, 1836 by Priam, also imported by Kater). Kater ran into financial difficulties early in the recession of the 1840s, and, in addition to giving up the lease on Bungarribee, disposed of much of his personal property and livestock for cents on the dollar, including most of his horses, but apparently retained his imported mare Dudu, from which he bred a colt in 1845 (by Cap-a-pie). The name "Dudu" is so unique in the stud books, and the dates coincide so well, that it is tempting to link MacFarlane's imported mare with the grey imported Dudu, who had such impressive breeding and is a member of Family 8 - b.

When MacFarlane's Dudu got to New Zealand, her only foal recorded in the New Zealand Stud Book was a black filly, Blink Bonny, bred by MacFarlane, who was by Porus, a bay horse bred in New South Wales (1845, by imp. Septimus-Camilla (Family C - 10)). MacFarlane probably brought Porus over to New Zealand; he was in Auckland by 1852, and raced for MacFarlane in a maiden plate there that year. Blink Bonny bred five foals registered in the New Zealand Stud Book for Dr. Thomas Paton, another early settler in the Auckland region who had earlier held some appointed governmental positions at Port Nicholson: the gelded Merrimac (1860, by Meleager), the colt Monitor (1861, by Meleager), and the fillies Marchioness (1863, by Herald), Marcella (1864, by Potentate), and Magnolia (1866, by Potentate).

It was Marchioness that continued the family line. Her sire, the Irish-bred Herald (1852, by Ishmaelite-Henriana), was imported into Auckland in 1861 and figures in early New Zealand pedigrees. In 1868 Marchioness entered the stud of James Watt, who became the first president of the Auckland Racing Club and a racing associate of Henry Redwood's. There she bred eleven foals, her last six bred in partnership with Robert Farmer, a partner of Watt's, with whom he held joint ownership of a big sheep station in Hawke's Bay. Her gelded son Longlands (1874, see below, by CJC Welcome Stakes winner Totara) was a good runner, and her daughters Polish (1871, by Day & Martin), Memento (1872, by Dainty Ariel), Bay Duchess (1873, sister to Longlands), and Florence (1877, by CJC Derby winner Papapa) bred on.

Both the Bay Duchess and Florence branches petered out after the turn of the century; Wellington's R.C. Thompson Handicap winner Mystification (1901, by Aprement), descended from Bay Duchess, and 1906 Avondale Stakes winner Quadroon (1904, by Menschikoff) was tail-female to Florence. Memento produced Victoria (1880, by Feve), who took the 1886 Taranki Cup and later bred 1891 ARC Welcome Stakes winner Adelaide, dam of Sport Royal (see below) and of Planet (1891), who produced Invercargill Cup winner Sirius, later the dam of two good stakes winners and a daughter, Asterina (1916) that bred on. The Memento branch of the family has flourished in recent years through the long-lived mare Mercian Queen (1829); Classic horses such as Queensland Guineas winner Flying Ace (1965), and South African Guineas winner Clifton King (1995, see below) descend from Mercian Queen.

Polish bred seven recorded foals; of these the 1884 bay filly Ladybird (by imported Feve (GB), who stood briefly in New Zealand before being sent to New South Wales, returning to New Zealand in 1879) was the thread through which her branch continued. Ladybird was bred by Dr. Edward Waddington, who received medical training in Scotland, England and Ireland before taking a post as a military surgeon in New Zealand, where he served in the Waikato. He later spent over 15 years on his freehold at Te Awamutu, retiring to Cambridge in 1892, and several years later to Morrinsville. Ladybird became a broodmare for James Livingstone, who had been a soldier and settled at Patea in the south Taranaki, which had its own racing club at the turn of the century. Ladybird bred eight foals for Livingstone, and two more for H. Kavanagh. Her foals by Muskapeer, Lottie (1889, see below) and Newtown (1896, Cornwall Handicap winner) were good runners. Lottie, Lady Cuisine (1893, by Cuirassier), and Golden Sands (1900, by Muskapeer) continued Ladybird's branch of the family. The good staying mare Beaux Art (1991, see below) and her stakes winning daughter Imaginaire (2002) descend from Lottie. Lady Cuisine's line is also still active; it includes the capital South Island bred stayer Mr. Ay Bee (1973, by Showoff), who took the Avondale Cup, the ARC King's Plate, and Dunedin Gold Cup, among other races before injuring his cannon bone, and Feilding Gold Cup winner Call Me Stumpy (1980).

Notable Descendants