THE EPSOM WINNER

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 84, 6 October 1936, Page 15

THE EPSOM WINNER

CAPRIS'S SUCCESS

SOME UNUSUAL FEATURES

It is rather a remarkable coincidence that the result of the Epsom Handicap at Randwick on Saturday should have been altered on a protest, for twelve months ago the result of the Metropolitan, the other "leg" of the big spring double in Sydney, was. similarly reversed. Last year's Metropolitan saw High Cross leading Oro home by a neck, but a protest lodged on behalf of Oro was successful and he was awarded the race, w'.'cli High Cross relegated to second place. On Saturday Gay Lover, who has shared favouritism with The Marne for some weeks past, beat Capris to the post by a head, but lost the race on a protest and was placed second to the Domin-ion-bred mare. Capris had been well fancied also by her connections for some weeks past, but she was apparently not a widely popular choice outside the stable. She makes the third New Zealand success in the last three years in the Epsom. Two years ago Silver Ring gave the Dominion a clear-cut win, but the subsequent victors, Synagogue and Capris, though bred in the Dominion, were racing in the interests of Australian owners. Going back seven years, two other New Zealanders, Autopay (1931) and Nightmarch (1929), also won the Epsom, so with five out of the last eight winners the Dominion has an excellent recent record in the race. CAPKIS'S CAREER. Capris was a very promising youngster as a two-year-old in the Dominion, for in three starts she was third, then second, and then first. At the Auckland Easter Meeting she was second to Lady Kyra in the Onslow Stakes on the first day and won the Victoria Handicap on the second day, when Lady.Kyra was unplaced. She then ran in the colours of her breeder. Mr. C. M. Emanuel, who bought her grandam, Duchess Eudorus, in Sydney after she had won a small race there but found her an expensive investment as a race proposition, though she later made good when put to the stud. At the close of her short two-year-old career Capris was sent across to Sydney, and she quickly struck form, winning the Three- and Four-Year-Old Handicap at City Tattersall's Meeting at Randwick from High, who conceded 71b. Then she won the Highweight Handicap (1 mile) at the Christmas Meeting at Randwick, beating Dromos, and at Tattersall's Meeting she won the New Year's Gift (7 furlongs), carrying 8.13, and running the seven furlongs in lmin 24sec. That form induced Mr. Alan Cooper to buy her on the eve of the Adrian Knox Stakes. She started at odds on, but her brilliance was matched by the doggedness of Limyris, who beat her in a great finish. In. Melbourne she won the Stanley Plate for her new owner. Last season Capris won in three States, at Moonee Valley over six furlongs, at Ascot (N.S.W.) over a similar distance, and in Brisbane, where she won the Stradbroke Handicap (6 furlongs), and finished third in the Doomben Cup (1-J miles). . She was unplaced in Melbourne in the Leonard Stakes with 7.5, the Bourke Handicap with 8.4, and the Newmarket Handicap with 8.13. This season, racing in the joirxt interests of Messrs. A: and H. Cooper, the latter being 'her trainer, she indicated,a return to form by finishing fast from ■behind to secure fourth place in the Camellia Stakes at Rosehill a fortnight prior to the Epsom, and on the. strength of that run she was backed by her connections for Saturday's race.; - Capris is the .first-mare- to have her name placed on the Epsom winning record since Maximise, also a five-year-old, won in 1906: Naturally the Epsom prospects of;a mare are always viewed with circurtsspection, but the set against the sex', was due to be. checked. Besides Gapris, Gay Blonde and Cuddle were expected to take a leading part in the ■: race this year. Gay Blonde appears never to have become prominent, but Cuddle, according to advice received locally, ran sixth, AUSTRALIAN FAMILY. Though Capris is Dominion bred, she hails from a line that has been established in Australia for nearly seventy years. -In brief, she is a chestnut daughter of Captain Bunsby from the Lucullus—Duchess < Eudorus mare Charis, and she traces back through seven generations to the Blair-Athol mare My Fancy, who is the taproot of this branch of the No. 4 family in the Commonwealth. ' , It is rather striking that'several of the offspring of Captain Bunsby, including Link Divine, Jack Homer, and Bunsby Gaze as well' as Capris, should have had notable success in Australia, while for the most part the stock of the Captain Cuttle horse have been failures in the Dominion. Captain Bunsby is a threequarter-brother to the English Derby winner Coronach, one of whose progeny, Montrose, a very small but game horse, was winner of the Duke of York Handicap at Kempton Park (England) on Saturday. Capris's dam, Charis,. was a failure on the race track. Several of her half-relatives, however, particularly Deputy Ruler and Royal Tea, were good- gallopers, and another halfrelative, Volopia, is dam of Hunting Maid. Deputy Ruler was taken to Australia as a three-year-old and he beat'everything except Hall Mark in the AJ.C. Derby. Afterwards he was sold for a-high figure, but he failed subsequently to win a race, going unsound and now being at the stud in New South Wales. Deputy Ruler was without much doubt a good horse, but troubles prevented him from ever really showing his best. The family to which Capris belongs was represented by winners in New Zealand back in the eighties. Lady Emma, a full-sister to Capris's sixth dam (My Love), was imported over fifty years ago and won the Dunedm Cup in 1882 and 1884, and at the stud she left another Dunedin Cup winner in Lord Rosslyn and a dual Invercargill Cup winner in Emmehne, the ancestress of Osculate, a good winner the last two seasons. Another representative of the iarnily came over to the Dominion with the importation of. In the Shade, who won good races in New Zealand and also at Randwick, his successes including the Auckland Easter, Wellington R.C. Handicap, Wanganui Cup, A J.C. August Handicap, etc., as well as a second in the New Zealand Cup. In the Shade was out of Violet H., a great-granddaughter of My Love. The third infiltration came with the importation .of - Duchess Eudorus, who was by Eudorus, a son of Forfarshire. The family has had several good performers in Australia. They include' the 1917 Epsom winner Satin Bird, the S.A.J.C: Derby winner. Miltiades, the AJ.C. St. Leger winner Correze, Bruntwood (second in A.J.u St. Leger),' Inglewood (Queensland Cup, Sydney Handicap, and seconds in the three Queensland classics), Fashion Star (1933 A.J.C. Breeders' Plate), Resolute (VA.T.C. Oakleigh Plate and Futurity Stakes), etc. My Love, sixth dam of Capris, also won the Queensland Cup. With such an array of staying talent in her maternal ancestry, coupled with her being by Captain Bunsby, Capris looks a possibility for a longer race than the Epsom, and it is therefore interesting to note that she figures in the Caulfield Cup. U miles, on Saturday week, with 7.11 as her original impost.

A postal ballot, taken for the position of president of the Bay of Plenty Racing Club, made vacant by the death of Mr. Jonathan Tanner, resulted in the election of Mr. K. J. Ronnie, who Is well known In sporting circles throughout the province.