THE MELBOURNE GUP

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 108, 2 November 1940, Page 13

THE MELBOURNE GUP

GREAT NEW ZEALAND INTEREST

BEAU VITE SHOULD OUTSTAY BEAULIVRE

r(By "Rangatira.")

The Melbourne Cup, on the "First Tuesday" in November, has an interest for the Dominion second only to that of the New Zealand Cup, which' is run on the Saturday either, immediately preceding or immediately following the big Flemington two-miler. And interest has never been keyed higher than it is-this year, when Beau Vite and Beaulivre in particular will do battle for Dominion ownership and blood. New Zealand has already won the Melbourne Cup on eight occasions. Will the record become nine on Tuesday?

Beau Vite and Beaulivre, who will carry No. 1 and No. 2 saddlecloths respectively, are not only New Zealanders, but they are owned here in Wellington by Messrs. R. Stewart and E. C. Harnett respectively, two wellknown figures in the city's hotel business. These two horses have been rivals from their very first race, but in the last twelve months they have met on only'five occasions, with Beau Vite winning at four of the clashes and Beaulivre at the other. Since last January their programmes have usually been mapped out so that they will miss each other. But neither is going to miss the Melbourne Cup.

ALWAYS HIS OBJECTIVE.

, The Melbourne Clip has been Beau Vite's end aim since the autumn. There has never been any doubt about this horse's being a stayer above the ordinary. Stamina is evident in every line of his pedigree. If ever a horse was studiously and deliberately bred to win two-mile races it is Beau Vite. On the other hand one did not anticipate when Beaulivre was a three-year-old that his connections ~ would ever have visions of winning the Melbourne Cup with him. Brilliant horse he is. But stamina? . Stamina is a term that carries an erroneous connotation to many. It is more than the ability to win a middledistance race or even a two-mile race. Stamina, in racing, may be briefly defined as that quality which enables a horse to win over, two miles when ths pace is on from the start and the time on a good track is 3min 25sec or better. Many a horse not a true stayer has won the New Zealand Cup or the Auckland Cup, but there are not many winners of the x Melbourne Cup who were not stayers. One noted instance in the Dominion in recent years was Cuddle, who won two Auckland and one. New Zealand Cups. But Cuddle had to have her own special rule, with the pace kept down at critical portions, when she could run a merry two miles in good time. Taken over to Australia she was never more than a miler when the pace was clapped on from the start. There remains just the same doubt about Royal Chief, who is at present pronounced favourite for the New Zealand Cup next Saturday. Royal Chief as one of the best horses up to distances just short of two miles that the Dominion has produced in recent years, and he has never been better than he is this season. But he nasi failed three times to win in two-mile, handicaps; and a real stayer, say, of the stamp of Nightmarch, would at least have won last year's New Zealand Cup under the same weight and from the same position as Royal Chief was in a furlong and a half from the finish. Royal. Chief is believed to be that type of high-class middle-distance horse who would be beaten at two miles, truly run, if there was among his opposition a stayer of the dyed-in-the-wool quality.

STAMINA IN DOUBT.

Beaulivre is probably less a middledistance horse than Royal Chief, though he did win the New Zealand Derby and the Doomben and Caulfield Cups. Royal Chief might yet prove that he is a stayer. One will be surprised if Beaulivre ever does. Beaulivre is a perfect machine in his action, and he is one of the most generous and best-dispositioned horses racing, which alone would account for his ability to win races in the top class up to 1$ miles. Two miles, however, is very different. He might substitute for a Cuddle or a Cheval de Volee, but doubtfully for a Nightmarch or a Beau Vite. True stamina is hereditary. It is never a "sport." Stamina must be bred. Stamina lines do not necessarily give stamina, as many a breeder has discovered. But it is only from stamina lines that true stamina is ever secured. „ . _ Beaulivre as by the Son-in-Law horse Beau Pere, and the male stirp is the strongest line of staying Hampton in England today. Any horse by Beau Pere with the obvious quality of the ifiae should get a middle distance. But there is a weakness on the distaff side of Beaulivre. His dam, Passbook, is by Paper Money, and there has been no progeny of Paper Money that was an undisputed stayer, though a few of them were capable of reaching the minor money even in two-mile races. Defaulter, out of a Paper Money mare, was a, great horse, but he failed in his only attempt over two miles—his one failure in his last fifteen starts. ■•■'■■'■ Beyond Paper Money, Beaulivre's

maternal ancestry is stout enough for any Cup horse, as his grandam, Password, was by Martian out of Secret Link and descended .from the old colonial taproot mare Sharkie, who was ancestress of such.noted stayers as the great Advance, Fishhook (Dunedin Cup),'Rosefeldt (New Zealand Cup), Tortulla (New Zealand Cup), and Diabolo (Canterbury Cup and secdnd in the New Zealand and Wellington Cups). The Secret Link ramification of the family nevertheless has had its main success with sprinters and milers, who have been as a rule wonderful weight-carriers as well.

In contrast is the pedigree of Beau Vite, another son of Beau Pere. The coupling of stamina blood in this horse is well worth the closest study.

Beau Vite's dam is Dominant, who was by Martian out of Lovelorn, by Melton out of Hebrew Maid, by the Bend Or horse Orion. Hebrew Maid was bred at the Westerham Stud in England in 1904 and she evidently showed little promise as a youngster, as she was not raced. When the stud was dispersed in 1906 this filly was purchased on behalf of Mr. F. J. Buchanan, of the Kinloch Stud, New Zealand, for 150 ginueas. Though only two years old, she was in foal to Melton, and after her arrival in New Zealand she dropped Lovelorn.

OUTSTANDING STUD SUCCESS.

Lovelorn was an outstanding success at the stud, her descendants in two generations including, besides Beau Vite, Wotan (Melbourne Cup), Game Carrington (Caulfield Cup), Peter Jackson (Moonee Valley Cup), Menelaus (New Zealand Cup), Lovematch (Hawke's Bay Cup), Motere (Auckland Cup), Old Bill (Wellington Cup), and Nones (who had the misfortune to be foaled in the same year as Desert Gold). It is rarely that a mare leaves such a great line of stayers in rapid succession, and still more rarely that any mare leaves three important Cup winners, as Lovelorn's Martian daughter Left (a full-sister to Dominant) did with Peter Jacksbn, Game Carrington, and Wotan.

Beau Vite is very similarly bred to Wotan. The two horses are from fullsisters, and their respective sires were by Son-in-Law. Bred as he is and properly done by, Beau Vite could hardly fail to stay, as every line in his pedigree is extraordinarily stout. Son-in-Law has been the outstanding sire of stayers in England for years, and his sons and grandsons have monopolised the long-distance races, particularly the Ascot Gold Cup. Martian, the sire of Beau Vite's dam, was worthy to rank with Musket as a sire of stayers. He stayed well himself and sired six winners of the New Zealand Cup. Martian's lines were a combination of Bend Or and Hampton. Martian's sire Martagon,. a Goodwood Cup winner, was a son of Bend Or, and Martian's dam, Otterden, was by Sheen, a Cesarewitch. winner by Hampton. Beau Vite is very inbred to Hampton, of.whom he has no less than five lines. His sire,- Beau Pere, descends directly -in tail male from Hampton through Bay Ronald, Dark Ronald, and Son-in-Law. Beau Pere's dam, Cinna, was by Polymelus, who was out of a Hampton mare, and Cinna's dam in turn was by the Hampton horse Ladas. The other two lines are contributed by Dominant, both through Sheen, who, besides being the sire of Martian's dam, was sire also of Hebrew Maid's dam (Jewish Maiden). In addition Beau Vite also has three lines of Bend Or, through Bona Vista, Martagon, and Orion respectively. Heroic was inbred to Hampton and Bend Or, but in his case the preponderance was Bend Or, whereas with Beau Vite it is Hampton. There are many so-called "hoodoos" against a Melbourne Cup victory for Beau Vite on Tuesday. . For instance, only one Metropolitan winner yet has ever gone on to win the MelbourneTim Whiffler back in 1867. Only seven topweights have won to date. Only one four-year-old, Phar Lap, 9.12, has won with the weight either Beau Vite (9.7) or Beaulivre (9.6) has. The favourites, also, have a very moderate record in the race. And, besides, there are always the thugs to be feared, though usually these gentlemen cause rather more alarm than trouble. But look through the whole Melbourne Cup field and you will be a wizard to find a horse with a better staying pedigree than Beau Vite. Beau Vite will win if breeding counts for anything, and he will also win if a million-odd New Zealander hearts can help him home in those critical three and a half minutes that follow 3.30 p.m. next Tuesday.