| Gloaming | |
|---|---|
| Sire | The Welkin (GB) |
| Grandsire | Flying Fox |
| Dam | Light (GB) |
| Damsire | Eager |
| Sex | Gelding |
| Foaled | 1915 |
| Country | Australia |
| Colour | Bay |
| Breeder | Mr E.E.D. Clarke, Melton stud, Victoria |
| Owner | George D. Greenwood |
| Trainer | Dick Mason |
| Record | 67: 57-9-0 |
| Earnings | £43,100 |
| Major wins | |
| 1918 Chelmsford Stakes 1918 AJC Derby 1918 New Zealand Derby 1918 Great Northern Derby 1918 Wanganui Guineas 1918, 1919, 1920 Arc Islington Plate 1919 WRC Wellington Stakes 1919, 1921, 1922, 1924 WANGJC Jackson Stakes 1922, 1924 & 1925 North Island Challenge Stakes 1919, 1922, 1924 Craven Plate 1919 Great Northern Derby 1922 Hill Stakes 1922, 1925 Ormond Memorial Gold Cup 1924 Melbourne Stakes 1924 AJC Spring Stakes |
|
| Honours | |
| Australian Racing Hall of Fame New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame (2006) Gloaming Stakes run at Rosehill Racecourse |
|
| Horse (Equus ferus caballus) | |
| Last updated on 6 September 2010 | |
Gloaming (foaled September 1915 in Australia) was an outstanding Thoroughbred racehorse, owned, trained, and based in New Zealand. He set many records which includes the Australasian record (jointly held with Desert Gold) of 19 successive wins, many in Principal Races. Gloaming was unusual that he was a champion who won many major races in both Australia and New Zealand. Gloaming still holds the Australasian record of 45 seconds for four furlongs.
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He was a robust bay gelding standing 15 hands 3 inches high with a good length of rein. Gloaming was sired by the good imported racehorse and sire, The Welkin (GB) out of the unplaced mare, Light (GB), by the good sire, Eager. His paternal grandsire was the English Triple Crown champion, Flying Fox. Gloaming was a brother to seven other named horses, all by The Welkin, including Gloaming's Sister (won AJC Kirkham Stakes), but none were nearly so successful as him.[1] Light was inbred in the third generation (3x3) to Sterling.[2]
Gloaming was sold as a yearling in 1916 for 230 guineas to Mr H. Chisholm acting on behalf of George D. Greenwood, of Teviotdale in the North Island, New Zealand. Following the sale he made his first of 15 crossings of the Tasman Sea.[3]
Gloaming had a long career, racing from age three to nine years, which included victories over other champion racehorses such as Desert Gold, Beauford, Kennaquhair, Whittier and The Hawk. He was successful at distances from four furlongs to a mile and a half.[1]
He was put into work as a two-year-old, but became shin-sore, and was gelded before being spelled. In June 1918 he was shipped to Sydney, after he had showed promise in track work in New Zealand.[3]
At his first start, in the Sydney Tattersall's Chelmsford Stakes, over nine furlongs, he ran a race record time to defeat a class field that included the imported five-year-old Rebus and Kennaquhair. This was the first time this race had been won by a three-year-old having their first start. In his first season's racing Gloaming went on to win three Derbies, the AJC Australian Derby, the New Zealand Derby Stakes, and also the Great Northern Derby in New Zealand. In addition he
Gloaming won all but one of his starts during this season. All of his starts for this season are listed below:
As a five-year-old Gloaming had 15 race starts and won all of them including these principal races:
As a six-year-old Gloaming had 12 race starts and won all but one, in which he ran second. The principal races he won were:
As a seven-year-old Gloaming had 5 starts for 3 wins and 2 seconds. The principal races he won were:
As an eight-year-old Gloaming had 5 starts for 4 wins and 1 second. The principal races he won were:
As a nine-year-old Gloaming had 10 starts for 8 wins and 2 seconds. The principal races he won were:
Gloaming had 67 race starts, won 57 (including 39 Principal Races) and was second 9 times. Gloaming fell in his only other race start, at barrier rise in the North Island Challenge Stakes which was a race he later won three times. When he retired he was the leading Australian racing stakes winner.[2] He was the first horse to defeat the great mare, Desert Gold over a mile and he still holds the Australasian record of 45 seconds for four furlongs. He jointly holds the Australasian record (with Desert Gold) (whom he met five times and defeated each time, except once) of 19 successive wins.[1]
When Gloaming was retired from the turf to his owner's property at Teviotdale, he was the leading stakes-winner in Australasia with fifty-seven wins and £43,100 in prize-money.[3]
Gloaming has had his portrait painted by the noted equine artist, Martin Stainforth and it was reproduced in Racehorses in Australia.[6]
Gloaming was one of five inaugural inductees into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame, alongside the other four turf immortals Carbine, Kindergarten, Phar Lap and Sunline. The Group Three Gloaming Stakes (1,800m) contested at Sydney's Rosehill Gardens Racecourse is named in his honour.