Great Stallions of the World: SOUVENIR

Perhaps no stallion has had such a profound influence on Australian performance horses, particularly jumping horses, as the grey stallion, Souvenir. Bred by the Clarke family, and owned throughout his life by Howard Clark, the handsome grey was born in 1960. Souvenir was by Request - himself a well-known sire of jumpers, who was in turn by Desire, owned by Howard Clark's uncle. Desire was by Gortland, a stallion used by the Victorian Mounted Police to produce a consistent line of police horses. Request was owned by Howard's father, Ted, and as he never stood to outside mares, produced only limited progeny that were shown with great success in the show ring.

Souvenir was the last son of Request, born after his sire's death. He was an immediate success in the show ring - coming second at his first outing at Royal Melbourne Show, behind the mature stallion, Niblick, an imported French Thoroughbred. This was the only time Souvenir was beaten in a led class!

Souvenir was many times champion, and soon his sons were carrying on the winning tradition, with Supreme, the 1970 Royal Melbourne Show champion led stallion over 15 hands, with another son, Victoree, the reserve.

But it was as a sire of jumping horses that Souvenir was to achieve fame. Perhaps the most famous was Tongala, who won a Showjumper of the Year title in Australia as a youngster, before being taken to England as a five year old, by Art Uytendaal, a Dutch born showjumping rider who immigrated to Australia. Tongala competed with success in the UK before returning to Australia, where he died after a fall at the Sunbury Agricultural Show. Autograph was also started by Uytendaal before he went to England with Jeff McVean. A success in the UK, Autograph represented Australia with McVean at the Alternative Olympics in Rotterdam where he finished fifth in the Individual competition, just behind the immortal Diester. Unfortunately, Autograph died soon afterwards from equine flu.

Another son of Souvenir, Mickey Mouse, carried Vicki Roycroft into tenth place at the World Championships in Stockholm in 1990 - giving Vicki the highest standing of any woman competitor.

Souveneir died in 1979 but his influence lives on through his stallion sons. Silveneer, himself an A grade showjumper, sired Silverwood, who competed in Europe with Robert Hines. Australian showjumping team member, David Brideoake, has bred a number of foals out of jumping mares by his Souvenir grandson, Copper Glo Memento.

Another son, Kumali, is the maternal grand-sire of double gold medal winning eventer, Peppermint Grove.

Howard Clark stands McCartney by Souvenir out of an A-grade Showjumper. He also stands Koyuna Majestic Supreme by the Souvenir son, Supreme out of Cordula 11, a Warmblood mare by Northern Congress with Cor de la Bryère, Arnhem, Abgar and Flaneur bloodline.

The following is the pedigree supplied for Souvenir but there are persistent rumours that it is not accurate - indeed one story has the stallion born of a Percheron / Arab mare owned by a local police officer!