Family C-27: Slander

Slander, a bay mare bred in Canterbury in 1863, was one of many good horses that raced in the vicinity of the Dunedin gold fields in the early boom days of the 1870s. She retired to Auckland butcher William Walters' Glenora Park Stud, established during that decade in Papakura, which became a powerhouse breeding establishment in the Auckland area for over 50 years. The New Zealand Stud Book extended her pedigree back five generations to a mare named Kitty by Bay Camerton, and no further. There was some question as to whether Slander was by Camden or Traducer, but Traducer is the accepted name in most sources.

Slander bred three good runners and three daughters that bred on. Billingsgate (1876, by Isaac Walton) won the Dunedin Champagne Stakes; Speculation (also called Hippodamia, 1878, by Hippocampus) won the Hawke's Bay Guineas, the Wanganui Cup over 18 furlongs, and several other long distance races; and Foul Shot (1882, by Musket), was a winner of the ARC Welcome Stakes. Foul Shot was later exported to American Bernard Schreiber's Woodland Stud at Bridgeton, Missouri (USA). Speculation, her sister Satanella (1881, by Hippocampus), and Reproach (1883, by Fitz Hercules) all bred on, although Reproach's line died out in the first decades of the twentieth century, and Speculation's not long after.

Satanella's line continued. She was a foundation mare in the stud of London-born William Percival, the first and long-time secretary of the Auckland Racing Club, and a secretary and Master of the Hunt for the Pakuranga Hunt for a number of years. Two of his horses won the Pakuranga Hunt Cup, and as a jumping enthusiast, brought steeplechasing to the Ellerslie racecourse. He joined Thomas Morrin and others in the short-lived New Zealand Stud and Pedigree Company, for which he served as secretary, and was also a handicapper for the Auckland Racing Club and other clubs in that vicinity.

Satanella, bred to the best stallions of the time, produced some good runners, including St. Paul (see below), the successful sprinter St. Clements (1888, by St. Leger), St. Olga, who dead-heated with Miss Lottie and Paratutu in the ARC Prince of Wales' Handicap, St. Ursula, and Linstock. St. Paul was later dam's sire of the long-running popular turf idol of the 1920s, Nukumai, a great weight-carrier on the flat and over fences that was still winning races at age 14; in 1927 within a span of six days he won the WRC Whyte Memorial Handicap (9st.-12 lbs.), the WRC Parliamentary Handicap (1-1/4 miles, 10 st.-9lbs) and the Winter Hurdles (11 st-8 lbs.). Satanella's daughter, Mon Amie (1904, by Soult), continued the family line into the late 20th century.

Notable Descendants