EPSOM AND DERBY

Evening Post, Volume c, Issue 82, 3 October 1940, Page 15

EPSOM AND DERBY

SYDNEY'S CLIMAX

NEW ZEALANDERS ENGAGED

New Zealand once again lias a very j tangible interest m the spring racing] campaign in Australia this year, and the climax so far as Sydney is concerned will be reached with the Australian Jockey Club's Spring Meeting, which opens on Saturday. The Dominion is particularly strongly represented in the Epsom Handicap, which is the leading mile event of the spring j in Australia, and a Dominion-bred colt in Tidal Wave has come into strong favour for the A.J.C. Derby. Big fields remained in the Epsom, Derby, and Metropolitan (run on the second day, Monday) at the first payments a fortnight ago, but there is a final payment today which will reduce them to their race dimensions. The Derby promises to be contested by more than the usual number of horses this year, because there has so far been nothing outstanding among the three-year-olds. BEAU VITE ON TOP. The Epsom topweight is the New Zealander Beau Vite, with 9.6, but it is not considered likely that he will start in this event, though Mr. R. (Stewart has been made a tempting I offer to run him. On recent form he appears overshadowed at a mile by his compatriot, Beaulivre, who, with 9.4, has all along been the favourite for I the race and will undoubtedly start a warm favourite on Saturday. Beaulivre has won all three races he has contested this season, and also the 11 furlongs Doomben Cup at Brisbane in July at his final start last season. In his first two successes this term he was apparently extended to beat Reading, but over the nine furlongs of the Chelmsford Stakes at Tattersall's Meeting a little over a fortnight ago he established definite superiority over I High Caste at-level weights, and he j receives a pound from High Caste in the Epsom. That was Beaulivre's final race in his Epsom preparation, as he was considered then to have reached very near peak fitness. High Caste, a week after the Chelmsford, was beaten easily by Beau Vite in the mile Hill Stakes at the Rosehill Meeting held at Randwick, failing over the last furlong, and, though he finally got back on the winning list in the Clarendon Stakes, 9 furlongs, at the Hawkesbury Meeting held at Rosehill last Saturday, the better horses were out of his path and his showing does not appear to have aroused exceptional enthusiasm among Sydney critics. High Caste improves steadily with racing, however, and he is sure to be among the better fancies for the Epsom on Saturday. Another horse who is now expected to start in and take a part in the decision of the Epsom is Reading, twice victor over High Caste in the Derbies last season and racing with more consistency this season. Reading has twice extended Beaulivre recently, and he has since been reserved for the A.J.C. Meeting. He was the early favourite for the Metropolitan, but entered the 1 leading lists also for the Epsom when, as a result of a conference with the Beau Vite people, he was coupled as the first leg of a substantial double with the New Zealand horse. SOURCE OF DANGER. New Zealand interest in the Epsom will mainly be centred on Beaulivre and High Caste, also Beau Vite, if he is started. The danger for them appears to lie in Reading and Mildura,' the latter in the same stable as Beaulivre and galloping with rare brilliance during the last month. Others in some favour are Tel Asur, Radical, Rexfelt, Early Bird, Katan a, and St. Constant, but the consensus of opinion seems to be that the issue this year is dominated by the class four-year-olds and last Easter's Doncaster winner, Mildura. The only New Zealander to run in last year's Epsom was Te Hero, who stayed put at the post. But the Dominion has had its share of success in the race since Nightmarch gave New Zealand its first win in 1929. Two years later Autopay scored his notable triumph; in 1934 and 1935 the winners were Silver Ring and Synagogue respectively; and in 1937 Gold Rod succeeded again for New Zealand blood. New Zealand has also produced several winners of the A.J.C. Derby, though none for some years. Eight | horses owned in New Zealand to win have been Bonnie Scotland (1892), Noctuiform (1905). Kilboy (1916), Biplane (1918), Gloaming (1919). Cupidon (1921), Ballymena (1923), and Prince Humphrey (1928), but Biplane, Gloaming, and Prince Humphrey were Australian bred. To make up for them Dominion-bred winners owned in Australia have been Nordenfeldt (1885), Phar Lap (1929), Ammon Ra (1931), Theo (1934). and Homer (dead heat in 1935). • j New Zealand produced four of the five favourites for the A.J.C. Derby last year, but it was the Australian of the five, Reading, who won, with High Caste second, Wilson third, Beau Vite fourth, and Gold Salute fifth. Beau j \ ite started an odds-on favourite. The | fevourite on Saturday is likely to be either Pandect or Tidal Wave, and at latest advice the New Zealander, who was pie top-priced yearling at the j National Sales last January twelve | months, may displace Pandect in the final betting.