Image courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington
It’s unclear if the G3 Kindergarten S. is officially named after the great Kiwi Kindergarten, but as far as 2-year-old Group features go, it’s a good name.
The Kindergarten S. was first run in 1945, won that year by Persian Prince (Manitoba {GB}), which would coincide with the brilliant Kindergarten era in Australasia and, as such, it’s a logical conclusion that the race is named after the horse.
The plain but brilliant Kindergarten was bred at Poverty Bay in 1937 by the man who foaled, reared and raced him, Ned Fitzgerald of Gisborne on New Zealand's North Island. The colt was a very late foal, dropped by his dam between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day that summer.
Kindergarten (NZ) | Image courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales
He was by the imported Kincardine (GB) from the Valkyrian (GB) mare Valadore (NZ), and he was later a half-brother to the eight-time stakes winner Golden Souvenir (NZ).
Throughout his early career, Kindergarten was trained by Richard Stanley Bagby, whose handling squeezed the very best from a largely unsound colt.
Through 35 starts, Kindergarten won 25 races in his homeland, blazing through the Auckland Cup, Wellington Cup, Great Northern Derby, Harcourt S., Canterbury Cup, and many others. His weights were big and his margins amazing, and through those years he won from four furlongs to a stiff two miles.
Kindergarten (NZ) in Sydney in 1941 | Image courtesy of the Sam Hood Collection, the State Library of New South Wales
Kindergarten’s fame in New Zealand was such that it travelled to Australian newspapers through the early 1940s. He was the ‘glamour horse of the Dominion, in no way a handsome horse but, possessed of Hampton blood, he is a natural stayer’.
Kindergarten was deemed better than his Kiwi peers, High Caste (NZ) and Beau Vite (NZ), and he was thought the next coming of Gloaming (NZ) (The Welkin {GB}).
In 1941, when the horse was still a 3-year-old, he arrived in Sydney for an Australian campaign, but developed ligament issues in his near-fore after a dead heat for third in the Warwick S. at Randwick. On that day, he was beaten by High Caste.
Kindergarten (NZ) as a 3-year-old | Image courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales
Kindergarten was shipped home to New Zealand to repair and he didn’t visit Australia again, in part because of soundness, but also because of the grip of World War II. It was an unfortunate legacy that he raced only once outside of New Zealand, as he was favourite at one time and another for both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.
But 1941 wasn’t the end of him, Kindergarten remaining in training until the age of 10. He raced in and out of soundness, but he was still winning over 11 furlongs as a 7-year-old in 1944. He ran his last race aged nine when third in the Harcourt S.
As early as 1941, it was widely known that Kindergarten was a double rig and therefore subfertile. Despite this, he was never gelded and it was probably the reason why Fitzgerald declared throughout the horse’s career that he would be sold. Interest came from Louis B. Meyer in California and from around Australia, but offers never eventuated.
Kindergarten (NZ) during his visit to Sydney in 1941 | Image courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales
By Christmas 1947, at the age of 10, Kindergarten was still popping up, but he didn’t win another race. That was also the year that his early trainer, Stan Bagby, disappeared, his car found unoccupied on a vehicle ferry in Auckland and no trace of him found.
Kindergarten was never sold by Fitzgerald, and retired to his owner's Gisborne farm where he lived until the grand age of 29. He died in May 1967, shy of his 30th birthday.
He was a “horse and a half’, said Fitzgerald. “If you compared him with a motor car, he was a Rolls-Royce and the rest were just ordinary.”
Kindergarten was among the five inaugural inductees of the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame, and few Kiwis will argue against his fame being as important to the sport as that of Carbine (NZ), Phar Lap (NZ), Gloaming and Sunline (NZ) (Desert Sun {GB}).
