Kindergarten (horse)
| Kindergarten | |
|---|---|
| Sire | Kincardine |
| Grandsire | Gay Crusader |
| Dam | Valadore |
| Damsire | Valkyrian |
| Sex | Colt |
| Foaled | 1937 |
| Country | New Zealand  |
| Colour | Bay |
| Owner | E N Fitzgerald |
| Record | 35:25-3-3 |
| Earnings | $32,160 |
| Major wins | |
| Great Northern Derby (1941) Easter Handicap (1941, 1942) Auckland Cup(1943) | |
| Last updated on July 3, 2007 | |
Kindergarten was a New Zealand racehorse during the early 1940s. He won many of the premier events in New Zealand including the Wellington Cup and Auckland Cup. He won over £16,000 in stake money, a large amount during the war. In his one trip to Australia he was allocated a prohibitive weight, and came third to High Caste and Freckles, two great Australian champions, in the Warwick Stakes.
After the race he was unsettled, and rather than risk damage, he was returned to New Zealand. Three times he was assessed as top weight in the Melbourne Cup, a race in which he would never partake, sometimes at a greater handicap than the mighty Phar Lap.
As a three year-old he won ten of 13 races, with those ten coming in a row after starting the season with three minor placings. Among his victories as a three year-old were the Great Northern Derby, Wellington Cup and the first of his two victories in the Easter Handicap, in which he carried 9 st 11 lb, the highest weight ever carried to victory in the race by a three year-old.
His Auckland Cup victory in 1943 is regarded as his greatest performance. He carried 10 st 2 lb against a high-quality field and beat them by five lengths in a then track record time of 3 minutes 22 seconds.
Overall he raced 35 times for 25 wins and 6 placings and is regarded by many who saw him race as possibly the greatest horse to have ever raced in New Zealand.
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