Horse racing: Stakes drew racing royalty to Bay

Grey Way was arguably the best horse not to win the Stars Travel Stakes. The "Washdyke Wonder" was beaten by Copper Belt in the 1977 edition of the Bay of Plenty Racing Club feature race. Photo/Barry Leabourn

By 1974, the Stars Travel Stakes had dropped the invitation entry clause, but continued to attract the best thoroughbreds in the country to race over 2100m at WFA conditions. The outstanding quality of the Stars Travel fields was again shown in 1974, when champion South Island mare Show Gate led the field until the 150m mark, before she was swamped by eventual winners Pegs Pride from Hi Bing and Furys Order with Show Gate a game fourth.

Pegs Pride, was ridden by arguably one of the best hoops to ever throw a leg over a thoroughbred in New Zealand in Grenville Hughes. Hughes was a master stylist and a champion judge of pace, who excelled in weight for age races where tactics often played a big part of winning the big prizes up for grabs. He rode 1278 winners from the mid 1940s up to the 1970s and is best remembered for riding the champion chestnut Mainbrace, who was beaten just twice in 25 starts, with Hughes riding him to victory on 23 occasions from 24 rides.

Included in the Mainbrace list of honour are races such as the Awapuni Gold Cup, Great Northern Derby, New Zealand St Ledger, Great Northern and Wellington Guineas, Foxbridge Plate, North Island Challenge Stakes and the Wellington, Gloaming and Trentham Stakes. Pegs Pride was Hughes' second Stars Travel winner after riding champion 3-year-old Kirrama to victory in 1971.

Duty Free became the only dual winner of the country's richest WFA event, when he outstayed Free Gold and Iechyd in 1975, after winning the last Star Travel Invitation race in 1973. When Duty Free won the first of his two Stars Travel races in 1973, he finished the season as the highest stake earner of the season.

However, his 1975 victory over Free Gold and Iechyd showed his longevity at the top level of the (then) 8-year-old. An interesting aside is that he was a younger brother of champion jumper Brockton, who won two Great Northern Steeplechases.

Happy Union became the second 3-year-old to win the Stars Travel, when he triumphed over Oopik and Timon in 1976, ridden by New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame member David Peake who had ridden Duty Free to his first victory in 1973. Happy Union took advantage of the WFA scale to carry just 52kg to victory. Happy Union showed in his lead-up to the Tauranga WFA event that he was from the season's top drawer of 3-year-olds, when he ran third in the Wellington Derby, to one of the best horses to emerge from this country on to the international stage in Balmerino. The Te Rapa trained galloper then annexed the New Zealand St Ledger and the Avondale Championship Stakes before claiming the Stars Travel.

The 1977 version of the Bay of Plenty headline race was the penultimate race and the first to be run at the metric mile distance of 1600m. That year's running of the Bay of Racing Club feature brought together two of the best horses to put foot on the turf during the 1970s. The "Washdyke Wonder" Grey Way and Copper Belt met on six occasions with the scoreline ending at three victories apiece - however, it was Copper Belt that emerged victorious in 1977.

The field for the 1977 Stars Travel was full of racing royalty, with Battle Eve, Kiwi Can, Tudor Light and Vice Regal, who were all among the best of the 1970s thoroughbred classes, also in the field. Copper Belt ridden by present day lower North island (race) starter Gary Phillips, beat Grey Way by one-and-a-half lengths with Battle Eve third.

Grey Way was arguably the best horse never to have his name engraved on the Stars Travel silverware. A big grey gelding trained at Washdyke in the South Island by Pat Corboy - Grey Way won his way into New Zealand thoroughbred immortality winning 50 races from 2 to 10 years of age.

The curtain came down on the Stars Travel Stakes in 1978 with the last running of the race. When Pegs Pride won the 1974 edition of Stars Travel, the Bay of Plenty Racing Club had put up a stake of $30,000, which ranked it second in WFA prizemoney and prestige in Australasia to the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in Melbourne.

Gelding Silver Wraith followed Kirrama and Happy Union as the only 3-year-olds to win the Stars Travel in the final running of the race. Silver Wraith won seven times as a 3-year-old and went on to become one of the top sprinter milers in the country. In the final Stars Travel Stakes, he beat Vice Regal who became a leading New Zealand sire, with Carlaw in third place.

The Stars Travel Stakes sadly faded into history, however, another Bay of Plenty Racing Club feature first run in the early 1970s has gone on to become an iconic Racing Tauranga feature race in the autumn of each season.

The Japan/Bay of Plenty International, which is now called the Windsor Park Stud Japan Trophy will take centre stage at Gate Pa on Saturday, March 22.