More chapters yet for notable success story

Press, 21 June 1984, Page 26

More chapters yet for notable success story

By

J. J. BOYLE

If The Dimple breaks through for a major win for the Dennis brothers, of Southland, on her Queensland campaign, Mr Ross Du Bourg, an Australian bloodstock writer, will have splendid fresh material for a subject engaging him closely, the success of the “Noble Bijou—Mellay cross.”

Writing for the Victorian “Racing Calendar,” Mr Du Bourg asserts that there is overwhelming evidence that Noble Bijou has achieved a revelatory and history-mak-ing “genetic integration” with Mellay mares. “The five outstanding members of the ‘Noble Bijou—Mellay club’ so far to grace Australasia’s racecourses are the three marvellous males, Prince Majestic, Allez Bijou, and the rising young Sydney star, Alibhai, plus the two

top-class New Zealand-cam-paigned race mares, Powley and The Dimple,” Mr Du Bourg writes. “Between them they had plundered more than $1,250,000 in stake money to May 21, 1984. And there is a great deal more to come.”

Mr Du Bourg believes it is poetic justice that Brian and Lorraine Anderton, of the White Robe Lodge Stud in Otago, who had received only $22,600 for Allez Bijou as a yearling in 1978, were rewarded with a price of $50,000 for Alibhai when the colt was snapped up by Tommy Smith at the 1982 Trentham sales.

Allez Bijou topped the $400,000 in stake earnings when he won the Winfield Wagga Gold Cup on May 4.

In Mr Du Bourg’s opinion Alibhai could turn out to be Australia’s new cups cham-

pion, with full maturity. He boosted his career record to 12 starts for four wins, two seconds, two thirds, and a total of $185,240 when he finished third to the thoroughly seasoned older stayers, Trissaro and Our Shout, in the Sydney Cup. Earlier Alibhai had captured first prize of $94,200 in cash and trophies by outgunning the top class Sea Anchor colt, Beechcraft, in the Rosehill Guineas.

Mr Du Bourg believes Alibhai has the genotype for greatness. “He is a characterful chestnut colt by Noble Bijou out of the smart sprinter-miler, Gem Flight, by Mellay, from Atlantic Flight, by the champion classic stamina influence, Agricola. The third maternal dam, Antarctic Flight, is by Blue Peter’s influential maternal halfbrother, Neptune, from Special Flight, by the good

Phalaris horse, Salmagundi, from Francolin, by Paper Money, from the distinguished tap-root mare, Philomela.

The pedigree of Alibhai, Mr Du Bourg finds, is a breeding theorist’s delight. “It represents a myriad and tightly interlocking partnership of multiple in-breeding and line-breeding patterns. The constant repetition and reinforcement of the names of prepotent admired ancestors converges steadily and inexorably into the first and second removes — at which point is created the ‘prepotent fusion’ of Noble Bijou and Mellay. But even his mother, Gem Flight, is the product of a ‘prepotent cohesion’ in her own right. This occurs between the comparative 54 per cent genetic-pool brothers, Agricola and Alycidon, in her second and third removes (2 x 3).”