NZB Kiwi slot holder The King’s Men had massive grins on their faces following Belle Cheval’s victory in the Gr.3 Cambridge Stud Almanzor Trophy (1200m) at Ellerslie on Saturday.
A day prior they made the announcement that they had secured the Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson-trained filly as their representative for the $4 million Champions Day feature in March, and their choice was quickly vindicated.
The daughter of Savabeel jumped away well from her inside barrier and settled three back on the fence for jockey Craig Williams. The leading Australian hoop was able to extricate his filly off the fence when turning for home and Belle Cheval began to chase down the leaders, bounding to the front at the 100m mark and comfortably put away her rivals to win by 1-1/4 lengths over Bulgari, with a further short neck back to stablemate Drops Of God in third.
“She is a very nice filly,” Williams said. “She was favourite for a reason and the fact that she was first-up over 1200m and she could utilise her barrier draw, she won untouched today.”
The lightly-raced filly had three prior starts in the spring, culminating in her placing in the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton in November, and Walker believes that southern trip has proven to be the making of her.
“That’s why we love taking horses to Riccarton in the spring,” he said. “The trip down to Riccarton just made her. Mentally she was just a bit soft going down there but with that experience she has come back more mature, more experienced and she has got it all ahead of her.”
With the NZB Kiwi (1500m) now firmly in their sights, Walker said Belle Cheval will likely be given one more start before the March 7 feature, before they potentially look across the Tasman for further targets.
“1500m will be right up her alley,” Walker said. “Perhaps we will go to the Lisa Chittick (Listed, 1400m) at Matamata (on February 14) where she will have home track advantage.
“Obviously, Lisa Chittick was a very special person to all the Te Akau crew and we would love to win that race.
“There is obviously the NZB Kiwi and then we would like to get her to Australia.”
Bred by prominent racing identity David Archer, Belle Cheval is a half-sister to his former three-time Group One winner Bostonian, and he races the filly in partnership with his partner Diane Wright and children Simon Archer and Natalie Micarone.
Belle Cheval is a half-sister to not only The Bostonian, but also Group III winner Cheval D'Or being the third stakes-winner among eight winners from terrific producer Keepa Cheval, who is also the grand-dam of Group I winning $4.3million earner Kovalica.
Belle Cheval has now won two and placed in two of her four starts to date and accrued more than $216,000 in prizemoney. – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
