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Tim Whiffler
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The best racehorse of his generation, Tim Whiffler was the unlikely product of a poor racehorse and almost useless stallion, and an unraced mare. He did not, according to the standards of the day, even look like the most perfect Cup horse he became. Isolated in Worcester, with an owner who preferred hunting to racing, he got few good runners, and he was sold to Australia, where became the successful sire of Melbourne Cup and Derby winners, and left an indelible mark on Australian bloodstock through his daughters.
His dam, the unraced Sibyl, bred by J.C. Knox in Ireland in 1851, was by the Venison son, The Ugly Buck, and out of Sylph, by Filho-da-Puta. She was purchased by Forster Walker of County Durham, and taken to England, where, bred to Oxford Blue, she dropped her first colt, Staff-carrier, at age three. She produced three more foals before being sold in 1857 to trainer John Fobert of Spigot Lodge near Middleham, Yorkshire. Fobert had trained The Flying Dutchman, and Tim Whiffler's grandsire, Van Tromp, among other good horses. He bred Sibyl to Newminster in 1857, and the next year she dropped Oldminster at the Jaques family Jervaux Abbey stud, where she was lodged. Oldminster was gelded, and went on to win the Great Yorkshire Stakes at age three, Newcastle's Northumberland Plate at age five, and numerous other races, including Royal Purses (4 miles) at Weymouth and York. Sybil's next foal was Tim Whiffler, by Van Galen, born in 1859, followed by the DeClare colt Manfred (1860) and a filly by The Cure (1861); she died in 1861, in foal to Lambton.
Tim Whiffler's sire, Van Galen, was a son of the excellent runner Van Tromp (1844, by Lanercost, out of Barbelle, also the dam of The Flying Dutchman). Van Tromp was never out of the money as a race horse, and won ten races, including the Doncaster St. Leger Stakes, the Goodwood Cup and the Emperor of Russia's Plate (Ascot Gold Cup). Van Tromp was at best a useful regional sire in Yorkshire, and he was sold to Russia in 1853.
Van Galen (1853, out of Little Casino by Inheritor) was hardly the best of the Van Tromp sons, none of which were more than useful runners. He won his first outing as a juvenile, Newcastle's Tyro Stakes, beating Hebe and four others. At York he led all the way in the Juvenile Stakes, only to lose by 1/2 length to Alfred, the only other runner in the race. He was never in the running in the Gimcrack Stakes, won by Mirage. He broke down early in his three-year-old season, terminating his career.
With that kind of record, Van Galen was relegated to the status of a "travelling stallion," walking to various studs and markets around Middleham and Thirsk, serving mostly half-bred mares, but, in 1858, he was put to Sybil, the unraced daughter of an unraced mare -- and Irish, to boot -- but, still the first thoroughbred mare he had seen. Van Galen's "best points," said a turf observer, "...are said to be his hind quarters, which are remarkable for their strength; and his action is of that light character which would suit half-bred mares." One has to wonder if Fobert was thinking fondly of his old charge, Van Tromp, when he put Sybil to Van Galen. The result of this -- at the time -- unpromising match, was Tim Whiffler.
Not unsurprisingly, after Tim Whiffler's outstanding race record at age three, Van Galen as a stallion came under renewed scrutiny. At the time, December of 1862, Tim was "not merely the only winner, but the only runner got by him [Van Galen]." His then-owner, William Metcalfe, leased Van Galen to H.S. Thompson, co-owner with John Jackson of Fairfield Farm Stud near Middleham. Jackson was a well-known Yorkshire betting man who had owned Tim from the middle of his juvenile season through his Ascot Gold Vase win. In his first season at Fairfield Van Galen was advertised at a fee of 20 guineas, and purportedly Metcalfe had refused "a long price" for him. It might have been better for Metcalfe if he had taken the offer; other than Ploughboy (1864, from Village Maid by Stockwell), who won the Manchester Cup in 1869, Van Galen got very little in the way of successful runners, and even when bred to a good half-bred mare, Tom Dawson's The Cocktail (winner of the Chesterfield Handicap, the Leamington Cup and other races), he failed to get anything of note. Other than Tim's progeny, he is seen today through a daughter, Lady Nateby (1866, from Sweet Hawthorn by Sweetmeat), who was second dam in tail-female of the good Petrarch daughter, Miss Jummy (1883), winner of the Oaks, the One Thousand Guineas, the Park Hill Stakes and the Nassau Stakes, whose descendants continue to the present.
Tim Whiffler was not an attractive horse, and descriptions of him, both in England and Australia, all tally with this one: "Tim Whiffler is a brown horse, standing barely fifteen hands three inches high. He has a small wicked-looking head, with a fine light neck, and clean, but rather upright shoulders. He has a light barrel, but good back, with blood-like quarters, and capital thighs. He is not over big in the arm, and stands high from the knee and hock to the ground. He is a little over at the knee, and upright in his joints, while he is a narrow nag to follow, and altogether a small, wiry, light-fleshed horse, with but little in his appearance to warrant his performances. In fact, Tim Whiffler will go down to posterity in company with The Hero, Fisherman, and some other great Cup winners, whose make and shape for going under weight and over a distance set all the recognized rules at defiance...[he] has, however, the recommendation of a sweet temper, backed by fine action. He is, indeed, a perfect snaffle-bridle horse, and with a certain game varmint look about him, carries something very attractive in his style when once set going." The long cannons, narrow body, problematic knees, and wiry look is something he passed on to even his best runners.
Tim Whiffler on the Turf
Training at Fobert's Spigot Lodge near Middleham, Tim Whiffler had a comparatively hard juvenile season, and he faced the same at age three. Running in the name of H.H. O'Hara, his first race was the Two Year Old Stakes at Ripon, where he was third, with five in the field, and followed that the next day by placing fifth in the Grand Stand Stakes. Having got his legs under him, he won the Elton Juvenile Handicap (5 furlongs) at Stockton, beating the good Orville youngster Repartee by a length, with six others in the field, including Adventurer and Trust. The next day he ran second in the Garbutt Nursery Pedestrian Handicap plate to Beverley (by West Australian), beating ten others. A month later at Doncaster he ran second against the older horses in the one mile Fitzwilliam Stakes handicap, won by the versatile French-bred Lanercost son, Cosmopolite (age six), with twelve others in the field. Also at Doncaster, the next day, he failed to place both in a five furlong handicap sweep for two-year-olds, won by My Partner with twelve others running, and two days later in a Nursery Plate, won by Silkstone, with twenty-three in the field.
After his second in the Fitzwilliam Stake he was purchased by John Jackson, who was on friendly terms with Fobert and other trainers in the area; he put Tim in training with Tom Dawson Jnr. at nearby Tupgill. Jackson may have wondered just what he had purchased, since after failing to place in the two succeeding races at Doncaster, Tim Whiffer ran four more times without placing in any of those races: in the Easby Stakes and the four furlong-200 yard Belsey Castle Nursery Handicap at Richmond on successive days; in a class of the Nursery Stakes, won by Gorse, with ten other youngsters in the field, at Newmarket Houghton; and in the one mile Copeland Nursery Handicap at Shrewsbury toward the end of November.
Tim Whiffler, as a consequence of his somewhat unpromising pedigree, was not nominated to the classic races. This was unfortunate, because by the end of his three-year-old season "the opinion was held that Tim Whiffler was the best three-year-old of his year, and that if he had been engaged in the Two Thousand Guineas, Derby, and St. Leger, he would have carried off all three events." Instead of the classics, he won almost all the major handicaps at age three -- the Chester Cup, the Ascot Gold Vase, the Goodwood Cup, and the Doncaster Cup, as well as other rich races.
His three-year-old season started with a win in the Brough Handicap at nearby Catterick Bridge, beating three others. At Thirsk he was fourth in a handicap won by Rapparee, with Patrick and Upperhand second and third, and six others in the field. Then, at Chester, he won the Cup (2 miles-2 furlongs) by a length, beating Investment, with Brighton third and nineteen other running, including the good mares Caller-Ou and Fairwater, and Caractacus, who would win the Derby that year. At Malton he won the Malton Handicap (1 mile-4 furlongs) and then the Members' Plate (1 mile). At Manchester he was beaten by a head in the Cup (2 miles) by H.H. O'Hara's horse, Ivanhoff, who had won the race the year before.
Next was Ascot, where he won the Ascot Gold Vase (2 miles), beating Carabineer by a head, with Asteroid third, and two others in the field. He was sold after this race to Lord William Powlett for 2,500 guineas, with a contingency if he won the Goodwood Cup (which he did). Still at Ascot two days later, now running in Powlett's colors, he won the Royal Stand Plate (2 miles-240 yards), beating Dusk, the American colt Optimist (by Lexington), and one other horse. Six weeks later he was at Goodwood, where he won the Cup (2 miles-4 furlongs), beating the second horse, the good stayer Zetland (by Voltigeur) by twelve amazing lengths, with the rest of the field trailing, including The Wizard, Audrey (1861 Cesarewitch winner), Umpire, Fairwater and Feu-de-Joie, all high-class horses.
At Doncaster in mid-September he won the rich Stand Plate (2 miles-90 yards), beating Asteroid by three lengths, with Silkstone third and last. The next day he won the Doncaster Cup (2 miles-5 furlongs), carrying the second-heaviest weight at 7 st.-7 lbs., beating Buckstone, Zetland, Gorse, with four others running, including the Prince of Wales' Stakes winner Carisbrook and the Great Yorkshire Handicap winner Wallace (carrying the heaviest weight at 8 st.-12 lbs). That was the end of the season for Tim, having won all three of the big handicaps in which he was entered, and the talk that winter was whether anything could beat him for the Ascot Gold Cup the following season.
In 1863 at Newmarket First Spring, Powlett challenged for The Whip (4 miles), but paid a 200 sovereign forfeit to Sir Joseph Hawly's Asteroid, who took a walk-over. Tim came out the next day for a 200 sovereign race, but the competition was all scared away, and he took a walk-over. At Ascot five weeks later, on a dry and hard turf, he ran a dead-heat with Buckstone -- to whom he gave four pounds -- for the Gold Cup (2 miles-4 furlongs), beating Hurricane (winner of the One Thousand Guineas the previous year), Carisbrook, Caller-Ou, and Eleanor, the latter in as a rabbit to make the running for Tim. Ralph "Geordie" Bullock, the jockey that had partnered with Tim in almost all his previous year's triumphs, had died over the winter, and in this race his jockey was Samuel Rogers, who made very free with the whip, something Tim Whiffler had not experienced before. Buckstone had run third in the previous year's Derby to Caractacus and The Marquis, second to The Marquis in the St. Leger, and second to Tim in the Doncaster Cup. Tim made all the running, with his usual speed, in the deciding heat, but was caught by Buckstone, a stouter and larger horse, who won by two lengths.
"The victory [of Buckstone]," said The Review, "carries no dishonour to the vanquished, for nobody who saw Tim Whiffler struggling with unflinching gameness under hopeless difficulty will ever forget or cease to hold in honour the indominitable resolution which he displayed...these two competitors for the spelndid prize parted upon equal terms. Both had done about all they could do, and both felt severely the effect of what they had done. But after the deciding heat, Tim Whiffler was utterly exhausted, while Buckstone had won with tolerable ease and remained comparatively fresh. Tim Whiffler...although he had no chance at all left of winning, still striving to answer the calls made upon him by his jockey with his old unflagging vigour, was a melancholy, but, nevertheless, a noble sight."
Tim was slated to run in the Goodwood Cup, but Powlett determined he had not recovered from Ascot, certainly not under the crushing weight that would be assigned to him, and he was scratched. He was slated to run in a match against Asteroid at Newmarket in September, but the race was called off by mutual consent. That was the end of his career as a racehorse.
Tim Whiffler in the Stud
Tim Whiffler was retired to Powlett's stud at Raby Castle, County Durham, but his time there was brief. Early in 1864, Lord Powlett's elder brother, Henry, died, and Powlett inherited the Duke of Cleveland title; in September of that same year, Powlett died, and his stud was dispersed. Tim Whiffler was purchased by George Coventry, the 9th Earl of Coventry, and taken to his fabulous 18th century Capability Brown-designed estate, Croome Park, in Worcester. Coventry's first good horse was Elcho, by Rifleman, that Coventry purchased after he won the Goodwood Stakes in 1861 and he took the Great Metropolitan Handicap at Epsom the next year. He also owned the lightly-weighted Cesarewith winner of 1864, Thalestris, and purchased and raced the American-bred Umpire from Richard Ten Broeck, and later retired him to Croome, where he stood alongside Tim Whiffler.
More enthusiastic about steeplechasing than flat racing, Coventry-- whose brother was the famous steeplechase rider Arthur Coventry -- was a founder of the National Hunt Commitee, and owned and raced the two famous Grand National winning sisters, Emblem and Emblematic. Much later, he also bred the grand half-bred runner and broodmare, Verdict.
Not surprisingly, Tim Whiffler was used on half-bred mares at Croome, and his offsrping can be seen in the half-bred Perion Mare family (Family HB - 3). His half-bred son, LITTLE TIM (1870, from La Maudite), won a hurdle race and three steeplechases, and Little Tim's full sister, COQUINE produced steeplechase and hunter's flat race winners. Tim's half-bred daughter, CINDERELLA (1867, out of Maud, and so half-sister to La Maudite) won four flat races and three hurdle races, and her sister, ULRICA (1871), used as a hunter, later bred several multiple steeplechase winners, including I Spy (1889), Peep O (1891), Malvern Abbot (1894) and Hide and Seek II (1896). Tim also got a thoroughbred son, PROSPER (1868, from Prosperity by Ethelbert) at Croome, that later got Lord Coventry (1881, from La Maudite), a winner of fourteen hunters' flat races, two hurdle races, and twelve steeplechases. Umpire, incidentally, was also used frequently at Croome on half-bred mares with some success.
Of Tim Whiffler's English thoroughbred offspring, his best was probably COVENTRY (1871, out of Cherwell, by Oxford), who won the two mile Ascot Stakes in 1874, after Tim Whiffler had left the country. MUSTER (1867, from Chamade, by Rataplan) ran third in the Epsom Derby and went on that same year to win the Manchester Cup. The King Tom - Mentmore Lass daughter, Crafton Lass, was bred to Tim in 1865, and sold to Hungary, where she dropped the filly ALL MY EYE (1866), that won the Magyar Kanca Dij at Budapest (2400 meters) in 1870. Tim's daughter CHARMER (1868, from Honey Dear by Plenipotentiary, and so half-sister to Oxford) produced daughters that bred on, one line of which is still active: the 1934 Kentucky Derby winner Cavalcade and Saratoga Cup winner Alerted (1948) were CHARMER'S tail-female descendants.
Tim Whiffler had few opportunities at Croome -- he was advertised at 12 guineas with opportunities for a "limited number of mares," and what thoroughbred foals he got were disappointing. English breeders never liked his looks, or his pedigree, and the popularity of distance horses as sires -- especially ones that could not get big winners -- was low. However, English breeders and owners found a ready foreign market for such horses, especially Australians that valued weight-carrying abilities and stamina, and by the 1860s exports had reached record numbers.
In 1871, John Moffat, a wealthy Victorian squatter and one-time Victorian M.P., left Australia for England, where he bought a huge number of thoroughbreds -- mostly mares in foal and youngsters -- for his Hopkins Hill estate, including Tim Whiffler, who was the last of the Dick Andrews sire line to be imported into Australia (with the exception of the Lecturer son, The Englishman, imported in-utero). Moffat, however, died at sea during his return to Australia in September of 1871, and his imported horses were auctioned in Melbourne in 1872. So, once again, Tim was brought to the block due to an owner's death. He saw only one of the over twenty carefully selected imported mares Moffat had purchased to build his stud, the rest dispersed in the auction to various points in Victoria and New South Wales.
William "Bully" Brown bought Tim for 810 guineas and he was placed at stud at Croxton Park, then a suburb of Melbourne, for a fee of 20 guineas. At the time, Croxton Park was the site of annual race meetings of dubious quality, but trainers such as James Wilson stabled horses in "good brick loose boxes" there when visiting the city. The Croxton Park race meetings collapsed in the early '70s, and Tim went to stud at Brown's Wonga Park Stud at Brushey Creek (Croydon). The Wonga Park Stud was dispersed in 1879, and Tim, puchased for 450 guineas, ended his days at Michael Bryant's Cairn Curran stud at Baringhup, Victoria, and died in January of 1883. The Tasmanian-born Bryant, who took up the run at Cairn Curran in 1854, was a son-in-law of W.C. Yuille, a stock auctioneer and thoroughbred owner known today as the compiler of the Australian Stud Book.
Tim was considerably more successful in Australia than he had been in England. In the years for which statistics were found, he was well-ranked. In 1876-7 he was third behind the Australian blockbuster sire Yattendon, and Panic, and fourth in 1878-79, behind Maribyrnong, Panic, and Yattendon. He got two winners of the Melbourne Cup, Australia's premier distance race, two winners of the 18 furlong Australian Cup, and two Derby winners. He got some good-running sons, but by 1918 Tim's sire line was extinct. His daughters, however, were a different story-- better on the turf and superior in the breeding shed -- and he had a considerable influence on Australian bloodstock, most importantly through his "colonial" fillies, IDALIA and NELLIE.
This Tim Whiffler, usually referred to as "Tim Whiffler (imp)" or "English Tim Whiffler" in the Australian sporting press, should not be confused with the excellent racehorse, also named Tim Whiffler (by New Warrior), who was a failure as a sire, or with the Tim Whiffler by South Australian, also a lackluster sire; all three lived and served as stallions in Australia in the same time period.
Tim's first small crop of 1872 included GASCONY (from the excellent Australian race mare Gasworks, by Fisherman, a mare owned by Moffat and sold at the Moffat auction in foal to Tim Whiffler) and TIMIDITY (From The Roe, a winner of the five furlong VRC Ascot Vale Stakes, by the imported Stockwell son Stockowner). GASCONY was later the second dam of Clean Sweep, a winner of the Melbourne Cup in 1900, as well as of the AJC St. Leger and many other races. TIMIDITY'S daughter Taihoa went to New Zealand, where her daughter By-By (1904) bred the good staying brothers by King Mark, Mark Time (1918, Manawatu Cup) and Marquetuer ( CJC Metropolitan Handicap, Awapunti Cup, Feilding Cup). Tim's son VOLO, a colt from the unnumbered colonial family named after his dam, Flirt (c. 1860, by New Warrior), was a good runner in this crop.
The next year, 1873, his crop -- all bred at Croxton -- included the great BRISEIS, NAPOLEON, and SYBIL. NAPOLEON (1873) was from the imported mare Parisienne (one of the mares purchased by Moffat and sent with Tim to Australia, by the French horse The Nabob. While he did not win any big races, at stud in Tasmania he got some winners in Victoria, including Silver Mine (1880), Mozart (1881), and Lord Charles Scott (1889), the latter two both winners of the VRC Standish Handicap. Mozart later got winners in Tasmania and Queensland, including three Hobart Cup winners -- Amadeus (1890), Musician (1890), and Timbrel (1894). Of these colts, only Timbrel was a useful sire, whose daughter, Rivose, dead-heated for the Perth Cup and won the WATC Metrpolitan Handicap, and he could be said to be the last somewhat successful sire of the Lanercost branch of the Tramp sire line.
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Briseis
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Tim's daughter, BRISEIS, from the good colonial-bred race mare Musidora (Colonial Family C - 5), was bred and raced by the well-known Victorian owner and trainer James Wilson, who had stalls at Croxton -- while it lasted -- and owned the famed St. Albans stud in the Geelong region of Victoria. BRISEIS was a celebrated racing filly in Australia, but she fractured her skull in a breeding accident; it was left to her full sister, IDALIA to continue this distinguished colonial family line, which is still active.
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BRISEIS ran five times as a juvenile without placing, but in her sixth start she took the tough one mile AJC Doncaster Handicap, carrying a feather, against a big field of older horses, ridden by her twelve-year-old groom, Peter St. Albans, who could make the light weight on her. This win was followed a few days later by the Flying Handicap over six furlongs at Randwick, and the All-Aged Stakes over eight furlongs the next day. Her last race was a day later, the Nursery Handicap, but carrying a little over 8 st., she did not place. At age three she won the VRC Derby in record time, the Melbourne Cup by 2-1/2 lengths (beating SYBIL), and the VRC Oaks, all these wins accomplished within a span of six days. Briseis and her young jockey, St. Albans, were the toast of Australia, and Briseis is still considered one of the best race mares ever to grace the Australian turf. The rest of her season included six more races, but the best she could secure was a second in the VRC Mares' Produce Stakes. She died the following year, during her first cover in the breeding shed.
BRISEIS'S sister, IDALIA (1874), dam of WATC Derby winner St. Ives (1886, by St. Albans), continued the tail-female line of Colonial Family C - 5 through her daughters Oceana (1884) and Tonia (1889). Oceana produced William Wilson's Newhaven (1893, by Newminster), the best of his day in Australia, winner of numerous races at ages two and three, including the VRC Derby by six lengths, the 24 furlong VRC Champion Stakes, and the Melbourne Cup. Taken to England, he was able to hold his own, winning the March Stakes at Newmarket twice, and the City and Suburban handicap and the Epsom Cup. He was put to stud at Newmarket, but British breeders were not interested in taking their mares to a half-bred horse not allowed entry into the General Stud Book, and he was returned to Australia, where he made little mark as a stallion.
Robert Sevior's SYBIL (1873, from Jessica, by Fisherman) was a wiry, game filly that first showed her class in the VRC Nursery Handicap as a juvenile, beating five other youngsters. She was third to BRISEIS in the VRC Derby (VOLO was fourth), and second to her in the Melbourne Cup, but her best race was her win in the VRC Australian Cup (2-1/4 miles), when she beat the good colt Calamia by three lengths. She was another colonial-bred mare whose tail-female line could only be traced back three generations, to a mare named Jessica of unknown antecedents. SYBIL was sold to South Australia, where she produced two stakes winning daughters, in-bred to Lanercost, since both were by The Englishman (imported in-utero, by Lecturer), a Lanercost great-grandson through Colsterdale: Lou (1887), who won the Port Adelaide Racing Club's Christmas Handicap (8 furlongs) in two successive years, and Recoup (1893), a winner of the Adelaide Racing Club's Fulham Park Plate for juveniles. Neither daughter bred on.
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Darriwell
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DARRIWELL (1874, from Norna, by Conrad), Tim Whiffler's second Melbourne Cup winner, was bred by J.O. Inglis of Ingliston, near Ballan, and sold at age four to W.A. Guesdon, a Hobart auctioneer and land agent that served four years as an M.P. in Tasmania, and later was a long-time officer in the Tasmanian Racing Club. In his early racing days. Guesdon raced under the nom-de-course "Rawlinson." DARRIWELL was placed in training with W.E. Dakin, later a private trainer for the wealthy Adelaide owner Sir Thomas Elder. Like most Tim Whifflers, he was "plain," and "his knees and hocks are a long way from the ground."
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Like his sire, DARRIWELL was not too promising in his first season: He did not place in a maiden plate at Melton, and at the VRC meeting was third in the Sires' Produce Stakes to RAPIDITY, and unplaced in the Nursery Stakes. He did not place in the Weld Stakes, and was second in a maiden plate at Launceston. He failed to place in the Melbourne Cup, won by Calamia, but then got his first win in the VRC Spring Handicap. He ran third to Swiveller in the Four Year Old Handicap at the same meet. He ran second, carrying 7 st-9 lb. to Columbus (10 st-1 lb) in the VRC Handicap, and was not placed in the VRC Midsummer Handicap, won by Aconite. In 1879 at the VRC Autumn Meeting he easily won the 1-1/4 mile Brunswick Stakes, did not place in the Newmarket Handicap, won the Handicap for three and four-year-olds, carrying 8 st.-2 lbs, but failed to place in the VATC Caulfield Cup, won by Newminster. Nothing in this record led anyone to think he would win over two miles, much less take one of the most exciting Melbourne Cups ever run in record time, but that's what he did at the end of 1879.
DARRIWELL went to stud in South Australia, where his principal stakes winners were Cheddar (1887) (SAJC Australian Derby), Harridan (1888) (WATC Australian Derby) and Clock Na Bien (1890) (SAJC Morphettville Plate). In 1892 he was purchased by a Mr. Cameron of Nagoura, in the far north of Queensland, but the climate "did not agree," and he died a year later, in July, 1893, having left little mark as a stallion.
Another 1874 colt by Tim Whiffler was the Victorian-bred RAPIDITY (from Fly, by Erebus), raced by F. Leng, for whom he won the VRC Sires' Produce Stakes (6 furlongs) in 1877, beating Waterford and DARRIWELL. In the stud RAPIDITY'S only good runner was Archie (1880), more a sprinter than anything else, that, after his juvenile win of the VRC Ascot Vale Stakes, was supposed to be a "certainty for the VRC Derby of 1883, but failed to stay the course." Archie's other wins were the AJC All Aged Stakes and the VRC Bagot Handicap (10 furlongs). Archie later got several useful horses in Queensland, including Realm, a Sydney Cup winner, but he was unable to get a successful sire son. RAPIDITY was also dam's sire of the gelded brothers Mairp (1894, VRC Newmarket Handicap), and Cardinal (1895, WATC All Aged Stakes).
The 1875 Tim Whiffler crop included EMILY (from Saphho, by Sir Hercules), another half-bred colonial family mare (Family C - 1), and MELITA (out of Formosa, by Snowden), from another, unnumbered colonial family descended from a mare called Queen Mab (1834, by Steeltrap).
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Melita
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MELITA'S (1875) dam, Formosa, was the grandaughter of a mare of unknown antecedents. Formosa was a good runner in her day, winning races at Wagga and taking the VRC Oaks. At age three, MELITA won the AJC Trial Stakes, beating Freemason and Sir Andrew, both good runners, and a few days later, leading from the start to the grandstand, ran out of gas and failed to place in the Sydney Cup, won by Democrat. At Victoria she won the VRC Oaks. She did not breed winners, but the female line of her half-sister, Britannia (by John Bull) produced stakes winners through the early twentieth century.
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EMILY (1875), bred by George Lee of Kelso, NSW, was in the stables of Governor Sir Hercules Robinson, a racing enthusiast and patron of numerous racing clubs in New South Wales, and was trained in Sydney by Tom Lamond, who had also schooled her half-brother, Kingsborough (by Kingston) to his wins, including the AJC Derby and St. Leger. EMILY, like her sire, was a wiry filly, "...as fine as a deer in limb and muscle, pettish as a boarding school Miss addicted to pastry." As a juvenile her races included the AJC Champange Stakes, where she ran third to His Lordship and Bosworth, both good runners, with five others in the field, and took a win in the AJC Flying Handicap by six lengths a few days later. She was known as a speedster, winning three races total, and second in the Hawkesbury Guineas and to MELITA in the VRC Oaks. She bred on for a few generations, but it was her year-younger full sister, NELLIE (1876) that sent this most successful of the colonial families (Family C - 1) forward to the present.
NELLIE (1876), a full sister to EMILY and also bred by George Lee, won the VRC Maribyrnong Plate as a juvenile for Edward Lee, and went on to win the AJC Sires' Produce Stakes and then the AJC Derby, one of the few fillies to do so. In the breeding shed at the Lee stud, she produced foals that, like her, excelled as juveniles. They included six daughters, all of which continued the female line, and a son, Yarran (1888), that won the VRC Maribyrnong Plate. NELLIE'S daughter Wilga (1887, a full sister to Yarran), a winner of the AJC Champagne Stakes, produced Belah (1900), another AJC Champagne Stakes winner; this branch of the family included Perth Cup winner Scorcher and Queensland St. Leger winner Loyal Shepherd. NELLIE'S daughter Etra Weenie (1889, by Trenton) won the Maribyrnong Plate as a juvenile, and the VRC Oaks at age three, and was an outstanding producer that bred a number of stakes winners, including Sydney Cup winner Diffidence and VRC Derby and Melbourne Cup winner Merriwee. Etra Weenie's many daughters were also successful broodmares and continued the family into the present.
After the mid-1870s, Tim Whiffler's production of high-class winners declined; more recently imported horses, such as St. Albans, and well-promoted and supported native stallions, such as Maribyrnong, became fashionable. After 1876, Tim Whiffler winners, most of lesser races, included AMBASSADOR (1877, from Despatch by Panic, later a sire), AIDE DE CAMP (1879, from Mother Brady by Hector, from Family C - 3), THE PIPER (1879, from an unnumbered colonial family), CLAPTRAP (1879, from Talkative out of Talk o' the Hill), and POLLIO (1876, from Norma by Athos, winner of the 18 furlong VRC Australian Cup). Other good broodmare daughters by Tim included RUBY (1875, from Amethyst by New Warrior), that in Queensland produced Black Diamond (1872, by Sweet William), winner of the QTC Derby and St. Leger Stakes, and NANCY (1878, from imported Eugenie by Thormanby), dam of SAJC Derby winner Salient (1890, by Oudeis).
Tim Whiffler, with his pedigree and conformation against him, was one of the most celebrated racehorses of the mid-nineteenth century. Circumstances in England, including location, told against his opportunity as a stallion, and it wasn't much better in Australia, where most of the major farms with high-class mares were located in New South Wales and not Victoria. At least half the mares he saw were half-bred, or their colonial equivalent, and even with this apparent handicap, through them he had an important influence on Australian racing and breeding.
--Patricia Erigero. Special thanks to Tim Cox for his assistance with Tim Whiffler's race record. |
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