Monday

Brew had all the qualities necessary to win a Melbourne Cup; he comes from New Zealand (ouch), has a quirky name, is by the sire who has sired more winners of the race than any other, and he is from an extraordinarily successful racemare - Horlicks.

When Horlicks was racing many were surprised that a mare by Three Legs could stay beyond a mile - but stay she did, and at the top level when she won the Cox Plate and the coveted Japan Cup to become one of the best racemares New Zealand has produced. It probably seemed natural enough to send such an accomplished mare off to the best stallion around - Sir Tristram. The classic case of breeding the best to the best. The product of that fortuitous mating has pitched his sire into the upper reaches of the leading Stallion Tables once again., thereby accomplishing in one season what so many young stallions have aspired to over an entire career.

Like many successful sires Sir Tristram brought to the colonial genepool an extension of a successful theme at the time - that of Star Kingdom. Amongst other things Star Kingdom came from the uniquely brilliant Stardust branch of Hyperion's male line and traced in tail female to the great matriarch Canterbury Pilgrim.

Although many people have said that Sir Tristram has a Selene theme to his pedigree I tend to think that a Canterbury Pilgrim theme might be more accurate. Although he traced to Selene in tail female and had an additional strain of Pharamond through Sir Ivor, Sir Tristram had key linebreeding to Lavendula through Turn To and the precocious My Babu a duplication which brings depth to the Selene pattern.

Canterbury Pilgrim has a unique place in the history of the modern thoroughbred, a daughter of the great Tristan she won the English Oaks and produced two sons of great significance: Chaucer and Swynford.

Both stallions were able to dramatically alter the characteristics of the family's they crossed. Selene was a member of the well regarded Gondolette (6) family which had had a great record of producing classic winners but which was disappointing as a Sire family until Selene (daughter of Chaucer) produced Hyperion and his half brothers Sickle and Pharamond. By contrast the Anchora (13) family was rather less grand in that it hadn't produced a significant race winner for some generations until Canterbury Pilgrim arrived via her sons Swynford (sire of the Yorkshire Oaks winner Broderick Bay) and Scapa Flow (daughter of Chaucer) who produced the stallions Pharos and Fairway. Swynford had an equally positive effect on Marchetta's (1) family which had been a waning branch of the vigorous Queen Bertha family until the good racehorse March Along emerged with his sisters Sweet Lavender, Rose Red and Gillyflower who were all marvelous matrons.

How does the inbreeding to Selene and Lavendula in Sir Tristram's pedigree relate to the latest Melbourne Cup winner Brew? Well there is inbreeding to the English 2000 Guineas winning Big Game in Malt's pedigree (fellow member of the Gondolette family) and also linebreeding to Hyperion through His Highness, Tropical Sun and twice through his famous daughter Aurora. (Alycidon and Agricola). Aurora's dam Rose Red was the full sister to Lavendula's dam Sweet Lavender and both these mares were by stallions who had Chaucer as their broodmare sire. In short both Lavendula and Aurora were inbred to Canterbury Pilgrim.

Pedigree writers are famous for their incisive 20:20 hindsight but I really do wish all those things had come to my attention before I put my money on Arctic Owl!