Cover image courtesy of Martin Stainforth
The Australian racehorse Manfred was best known in his lifetime for two things, and they were his brilliance and his obstinance. The horse was a dazzling winner of such races as the AJC Champagne S., the AJC and VRC Derbies, the Cox Plate and the Caulfield Cup, while he was a narrow second in the 1925 Melbourne Cup to Windbag.
On its own, this sort of record would sail a horse straight into champion status, which Manfred largely was during his lifetime, but the horse would have had more than 11 wins to his name if he hadn’t been so Chautauqua (Encosta De Lago)-like for much of his career.
Manfred very often refused to gallop away when the tapes went up in each of his races.
Manfred and jockey Bill Duncan | Image courtesy of Wikipedia
The dramatic strand-start kicked off all races across major racing centres until the 1940s, but Manfred, much to widespread despair, had a strong aversion to them. In 10 unplaced starts throughout his career for trainer Harry McCalman, the horse refused to race for six of them.
In other famous victories, like that of the 1925 AJC Derby, he spotted the field six seconds, or half a furlong, and he still won.
Manfred was bred in 1922 by the Moses brothers at the old Arrowfield Stud, which is now the grounds of Coolmore Australia in Jerrys Plains. He was by the brilliant, imported sire Valais (GB), who was the Danehill (USA) or Star Kingdom (Ire) of his Australian era.
Manfred in 1925 | Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia
Manfred was a son of the Colonial-bred mare Otford (Tressady {GB}) and, as such, he was later a half-brother to the 1940 Standish H. winner Chatsbury (High Syce).
In 1924, the horse was well-bred enough to command 1400 gns as an Inglis Easter yearling, selling under the old Moreton Bay fig tree at bustling Newmarket, and he was bought by the imposing ex-pat American Ben Chaffey, who raced the horse through his 28 lifetime starts.
By most accounts, the bay Manfred stood a tick over 16hh. He was ‘splendid and symmetrical, and a very high-spirited horse’. He needed strong handling throughout his life but when he was on-song he was lethal, and few horses, including his nemeses Heroic and Amounis (Magpie {GB}), could live with him on days when he was switched on.
Trainer Harry McCalman, owner Ben Chaffey and Frank Lavendar at Flemington on the eve of the 1925 Melbourne Cup | Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia
In 1926, Manfred retired to stud duties at the South Australian operation of Richmond Park. At a time when top stallions in the Hunter Valley were covering 30 or 40 mares, the new sire lost 19 of his first-crop foals to illness.
Manfred spent several seasons in South Australia before moving to Kismet Park in Victoria, and his final crops were his best. He got the 1937 Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double winner The Trump, while his son Mildura won the Doncaster H. twice alongside the Newmarket H.
Manfred died in June 1940, put down at the age of 17. It was just a handful of months after the passing of Heroic.
A newspaper article on Manfred from Saturday, June 8, 1935
The ornery old horse hasn’t made it into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, and it’s possible he never will. His greatest claim is probably his temperament, but the manner of his victories was withering.
While it’s often said that racehorses can give away weight but not distance, no one told Manfred that in 1920s Australia.
