Bella Nipotina downs Think About It at Rosehill
Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai) produced a scintillating display to land the $3 million Giga Kick Stakes at Rosehill yesterday, toppling the Joe Pride-trained duo, defending titleholder Private Eye (Al Maher) and The Everest (1200m) winner Think About It (So You Think), in the process.
Despite putting together some smart performances in stakes company, the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained Bella Nipotina had not tasted victory since her Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) triumph in October last year.
Chasing his tenth win in succession, Think About It was sent out an odds-on favourite but after working hard to get the better of his less fancied stablemate Coal Crusher (Turffontein), he was reeled in by fellow stablemate Private Eye.
The latter quickly sailed to the front and looked set for victory, only for Craig Williams to extricate Bella Nipotina from a sticky position on the rail and once the mare saw daylight, she unleashed an awesome turn of foot to nail Private Eye in the shadows of the winning post, beating him by a nose.
Succumbing to only the second defeat of his career, Think About It was a little over a length away in third. The win saw Bella Nipotina’s total-winning prize-money swell to $6,022,875.
“It feels like a Group 1 because she toppled The Everest winner and some smart horses behind her,” Eustace said. “It’s quick ground out there, she won the Manikato very impressively last year on wet ground and she was probably billed as just a wet tracker, but I think she proved that wrong this prep.
“She has had her foot on the till, and she’s got the job done. We had a plan if she jumped to go forward, we didn’t think there was a lot of speed in the race. Craig rode her beautifully, she got the split just at the right time. If it was any later, she wouldn’t have got there.
“She has just been racing so well this prep and we came into the race really confident of her running a massive race because she had been building and building and building.”
Eustace said Bella Nipotina was likely to continue her campaign, either in the Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) on December 2 at Ascot in Perth or at the Hong Kong International meeting at Sha Tin on December 10.
Meanwhile, Pride said: “Honestly, I’m pretty gutted. You can never take it for granted that you’re going to win, but it looked an easier assignment than Th