Bargain buy Bella Vella the result of a team effort
Inside barrier poses Moir concern but connections still rapt with remarkable ride
The ownership behind Bella Vella (Commands) is made up of an eclectic group of racing industry professionals and savvy form analysts whose collective minds have helped develop the online sale bargain buy into a valuable Group 1-winning sprinter.
The next phase of the project takes place at Moonee Valley tonight when the six-year-old, a winner of her past four starts including the Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in May, takes her place in the A. J. Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m).
Bella Vella’s upward career trajectory has been overseen by trainer and part-owner Will Clarken while form analyst and punter John Kelton, recent Group 1-winning trainer David Jolly, bloodstock agent Brett Howard and Rushton Park’s David and Kayley Johnson are also involved in the syndicate.
Clarken’s racing manager Lachie Weekley and owner and breeder, Queenslander Andrew Grant-Taylor who raced Group 1 winner Invincibella (I Am Invincible) among others, is also among those to own a piece of the well-travelled mare who had stints in various stables before finding her way to Adelaide.
It was Goolwa trainer Jolly, who enjoyed the ultimate success in the Memsie Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) earlier this month with Behemoth (All Too Hard), who first identified Bella Vella when she came up for sale on an April 2019 Inglis Digital sale.
She was purchased by the syndicate for $22,500 and, understatedly, Kelton said yesterday Bella Vella had gone on to exceed their wildest expectations.
“David Jolly originally picked her out as a candidate to buy and between Will Clarken and myself we do a fair bit of work trying to identify tried horses to purchase… and we have purchased a number of other ones before,” Kelton told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Bella Vella’s obviously been the best one, but we have a methodology in how we do it when we look through their form. We try to identify horses with upside or fillies and mares with a pedigree who have possible upside that we think can improve their race performance.
“Will’s got another guy, Lachie Weekley, his racing manager, who also has some input when we’re looking at the tried horses.
“When we first got Bella Vella and we started her off, we thought, ‘can we get a city win in SA for her?’ and then for the next year or so we were trying to get some black type for her and she’s kept raising the bar which has been fantastic.”
Adelaide punter Kelton, along with Weekley, plays a key role in the rising success of Clarken’s Morphettville stable by assisting in the placement of horses and the suggested riding tactics in a race.
“Will doesn’t profess to be a form analyst himself. He is a genius at looking at the horses each day and working out their work schedules and targeting particular races,” he said.
“He is very good at patching up horses who have issues and trying to work out and making sure the horses are feeling well and over whatever injury concerns they might have and (Weekley and I) are about trying to place them correctly and get them through as many grades as we can.”
Bella Vella, a first-up winner of the McEwen Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m) at The Valley, is considered a $6 chance by bookmakers behind Perth sprinter Fabergino (Maschino), the $4 favourite.
Clarken yesterday publicly aired his concerns about Bella Vella drawing the inside barrier for the Moir and Kelton agreed.
“I think there’s a couple in the race that will probably cross her. She will be hard-pressed holding Pippie out and the Perth mare has a lot of speed as well,” he said.
“So, we’re going to need a little bit of luck at some stage, but if they run along and string out a bit, that will probably help her.
“The other thing is, if there’s a fair bit of rain about during the day, when Moonee Valley has the rail in the normal position as it does, the inside will often be inferior going.
“I would have loved to see her draw five or six, but anyway, we’re in the race and we’ve got to make do with what we’ve got. It’s quite an even race and there’s a lot of horses who I think are evenly matched in the field, so I’d be expecting a pretty bunched finish.”
A return to The Valley for the Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) on October 23 is also on the cards for Bella Vella after the Moir.
Regardless of what she achieves on the track before she is retired, Kelton suggested she would be put on the market as a broodmare prospect even though there are breeders in the syndicate.
“The model we’ve had when we’ve had these good mares is to sell them at auction as people like myself, Will and David Jolly are in the horse,” he said.
“If we can build up their value and then sell it commercially, that’s a better model for us than being a breeder.”
Tomorrow, Kelton, who also raced the former Jake Stephens-trained Mackinnon Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) winner and Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) runner-up Alcopop (Jeune), again combines with Clarken, Rushton Park as well as Willaroon’s Sally Watkins in another tried horse purchase, the Zoustar (Northern Meteor) mare Be My Star.
Bought for $70,000 in May last year, Be My Star runs in a Benchmark 90 (1100m) mares race at Caulfield.
Kelton said: “She was bought from Magic Millions on the Gold Coast as a tried mare and we’re trying to increase her value and build up her race form which we’ve been able to do so far. The next step for her this prep is to hopefully get her some black type.”