Family C-26: Moth

This family, which traces back to the earliest horses in Australia, has produced top runners in both Australia and New Zealand, and is still putting out good stakes winners today.

The family traces to a mare imported from the Cape of Good Hope, probably, according to historian Douglas Barrie, to one of several shipments of mares from the Cape in the 1790s, most of which were brought for or by the early settlement's officers, or for the Crown. The conventional wisdom says these mares probably traced to Spanish jennet stock, but some were also probably thoroughbreds. This particular Cape mare was bred to (Old) Hector, an arabian bred in Persia around 1792, taken to India, and imported by Scottish-born merchant Robert Campbell into Sydney in 1806. Barrie believes Hector is the same horse purchased by Colonel Arthur Wellesley (First Duke of Wellington) while he was stationed in India, "a fine figure, a bright bay and above 15 hands high." When Wellesley returned to England he took with him a grey arabian stallion, the Wellesley Grey Arabian, grandsire of 1926 Epsom Oaks winner Lilias in England, and a chestnut arabian stallion. Hector was sent to the Calcutta stud of Wellesley's brother, Marquis Wellesley, Governor-General of India, which is where Campbell purchased the horse. Hector served as a stallion in Sydney until he was sold in 1812 to D'Arcy Wentworth, and he stood both in Sydney and at Wentworth's Homebush farm. Hector was a major influence in early Australian bloodstock breeding, and is seen in many colonial pedigrees through both his sons and his daughters.

The daughter of the Cape mare and Hector was bred to Model, an arabian imported from Bengal around 1818, that stood at stud in Sydney and then at his merchant owner, Mr. Browne's, farm at Abbotsbury. The resulting filly, Yellow Jenny, was bred to the imported thoroughbred, Herald (1819, by Marmion), imported from Great Britain by the Australian Agricultural Company in the ealry 1820s. Herald stood at land leased by the government outside of Sydney. The product of this union, Miss Foote, was in the stud of Scotland-born Sir John Jamison, a founder of the Bank of New South Wales, first president of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales, and a moving light in the foundation of the Sydney Turf Club (1825), and also first president of the Australian Racing and Jockey Club (1828). Miss Foote was bred to the imported (Boyd's) Camel, producing Moth in 1847, the taproot of this colonial family.

Moth, who ended up in the stud of Thomas Icely of Coombing Park Stud near Bathurst, was one of a shipment of eleven thoroughbreds purchased by New Zealander Henry Redwood in 1852. Other horses in this shipment included the famous mare Flora McIvor and her daughter Zoe, the colonial taproot mare Woodstock (Family C - 28), and the great stallion Sir Hercules.

Moth became a broodmare in the stud of Major Nathaniel G. Morse, who first squatted in the upper Wairau Valley (near Blenheim) in 1846 and served in the Colonial and Militia Volunteers in New Zealand. He later settled at Wanganui, where he became known as a horse breeder. Morse had several sons, including Ernest, a caretaker of the Bulls racecourse and owner of some good running horses, and George, who became one of New Zealand's best handicappers. In the Morse stud Moth bred eight foals between 1854 and 1864. Of these, Ladybird (1858, by Il Barbiere, the first thoroughbred son of Figaro), purchased by Henry Redwood, was an outstanding winner of a number of races, including both the first and second 3 mile weight-for-age VRC Champion Race, with the huge stake of £1,000, plus added monies. This race originated in Australia and was run in New Zealand at Dunedin for this first time in 1863, when Ladybird was four years old. In her first Champion Race she beat Mormon, the top Australian horse brought over for the meeting. Her second win of this race was when it was run in Canterbury in 1865; in this race she ran in the colors of Henry Lance.

Ladybird was a disappointing broodmare, but one of her sisters, Crescent (1855, by Sir Hercules), produced two daughters that bred on. One, Fortuna (1868, by St. Aubyn), was the dam of Wanganui Derby winner Odd Trick (1878, by Day Dawn), and second dam of Avondale Cup winner Toroa (1895, by Regel).

Crescent's daughter Atalanta (1862, by Towton) produced Pungawherewhere (1872, by Golden Grape; also referred to as Pungawerewere), bred by Francis Delamain, a prominent Canterbury-based race horse owner. She won the Dunedin Cup, after bolting and galloping twice around the course before the race. For the Morrin brothers she bred twelve foals between 1879 and 1895. These included Tetford (1881, by Musket), winner of the 1886 Wanganui Cup; St. James, who won the 1890 Dunedin Cup for G. McLean at age four; Crackshot (1887, by Nordenfeldt, see below), Brigadier (1883, by Musket), later a modest stallion, and Osculator (1892, by Hotchkiss), winner in Australia of the VRC Spring Stakes. She also produced three fillies that established long-lasting branches of the family.

The family has produced three New Zealand Oaks winners -- Pink Terrace (1923), Tartan Tights (1991), and Wharite Princess (2000). There have been many recent stakes winners, including Wharite Princess and the good Cup mare Palos Verdes (1991), and three champion fillies in the past two decades, Tartan Tights (1991), Ultra Sound (1984), both Wrightson Filly of the Year, and Sequel Sound (1988), Southern Filly of the Year in New Zealand.

Notable Descendants