Dramatic victory for Bean’s Beau

Press, 2 June 1981, Page 27

Dramatic victory for Bean’s Beau

From

J. J. BOYLE

Bean’s Beau won a Great Northern Steeplechase that for sustained interest would compare with anything produced previously in the long history of the famous Ellerslie race.

Bean’s Beau was headed, briefly in the straight by! Patrone but came back to! snatch victory by a short! head, and hard by, and finish-! jng with splendid determina- ! tion was Aurlada whose rider, Chris Wood, had been! without the use of his irons ■ for the last 1600 m.

Bean’s Beau was set for yesterday’s race after he ran fourth in the Great Northern last year, but there was gloom in his camp yesterday morning when the eight-year-old brown was showing signs of soreness that has afflicted him off and on for much of his career.

Fortunately he walked off the soreness and came out of the race as one of the gamest of winners for Mr John Bullock, who trains him at Te Kauwhata and races him in partnership with his sister-in-law, Mrs Gloria Bullock. Bean’s Beau does much of his work on a plough track on John Bullock’s farm with his younger brother, Denzami, which was runner-up in the Tamaki Steeplechase at Ellerslie earlier yesterday. Bean’s Beau was confidently ridden by Bryce Waters, a tall 22-year-old who spends the summer months working in a dairv factory at Waharoa in the Waikato but teams up with the stable of Bob Autridge when the jumpers prepare for winter racing. Waters realised at the last fence yesterday that it would be a close run thing for Bean’s Beau, but he was confident that the tough brown would, find enough for the occasion.

“He has a two-furlong run m him at the end of his races, and I would have been surprised if Patrone had outlasted us,” Waters said. Waters went into the race

with only one instruction:, “Go out there and win.”

The victory had something: of a bitter-sweet taste for;

Mrs Gloria Bullock. Her, father, Mr Ken Webb, died! only about a month ago. A! few years ago he had con-1 sistent and at times spec-! tacular success with close! relations of yesterday’s' rugged hero. Two of Ken Webb’s big] winners were Jan’s Beau and! Beauzami, the latter a New Zealand Cup winner, the! former one of New Zealand’s! most versatile speed horses.!

While Bean’s Beau and, Patrone were settling down to their sustained battle from the last fence there was mounting drama and excitement as Aurlada could be seen making courageous headway after them. Aurlada was the only mare in the race and was attempting to repeat the feat of her dam Falada in 1969. She would have almost certainly won the race, too, if her 19-year-old rider, Chris Wood, had had the use of his irons for the last 1600 m.

• "She hit the running rail and my right iron snapped in half,” Wood said later. “I then had to kick my other foot out of the iron. She kept jumping well and at the last fence I gave myself a real chance,! but they had got a little too, far awav from me.”

Thumbs Orf, the favourite,! ran a one-paced fourth.! Stephen Jenkins was' pleased with the Wanganui! Chestnut’s run, although they were in a gap of six lengths behind Aurlada. “He was flat on the hill the last time, but he kept on fighting,” Jenkins said. "Bet'ter ground would have suited him.” Craimar faded to fifth after running keenly in the lead for a long way.

“He didn’t settle and be-i cause he was jumping so| fluently and . pulling as well he didn’t give himself much of a chance of getting the! trip,” Craimar’s rider, Neil: Hain, said.

Hain still regarded the

seven-year-old’s run as a good one, and this member of Norman Crawford’s Matamata team could be excellent material for a race like the Grand National, which places more of a premium on fast jumping and pace.

Sparkling Brew was sixth. “A fait race” commented Lance Rokela, "but a heavier track would have suited him better.” Paulmont, the only runner for the South Island, came in a weary seventh. "He was going well enough to have a chance going up the hill the last time,” said his rider Richard Collett. “But when they sprinted down the hill, he could not stay in touch.”

Tony' Gillies had hopes of winning on Denby Fox three fences out, but Saturday’s Greenlane Steeples winner made mistakes at the. last two fences and came in a tired eighth.

Peter Jack, the 3/4 fancy, was a distant tenth. “He was going all right early, but he simply didn’t try' in the last 1600 m,” his rider, Paul Hillis, commented.

High Chief, at 10 years the veteran of the field, also ran like a tired old man, and came in last. He did not show much interest in his jumping and his rider, Trevor Harrison, thought the gelding’s retirement would not be long delayed. A more popular veteran at El’erslie yesterday was Brockton, who led the Great Northern parade, looking as chipper as many horses half his age.

Brockton is now 16 but he has been living well under the care of his old trainer, Colin Jillings, these last few weeks, and he acted fresh and looked jaunty' as Brian Hillis rode him through the straight. “I wanted to pop him over the double as well but they wouldn’t let me,” Hillis said later.