Bella provides timely victory for Inglis Digital
Will Clarken mare gains first Group 1 in Robert Sangster Stakes
Bella Vella upstaged a strong field of fillies and mares to score a first Group 1 win in the TAB Classic (registered as the Robert Sangster Stakes) (Gr 1, 1200m), providing trainer Will Clarken with his first top-level success as well as an important milestone for Inglis’ online arm, Inglis Digital.
Bella Vella (5 m Commands – Forget The Weather by Zabeel) became the first graduate of the Inglis Digital platform to subsequently score at Group 1 level since its launch three years ago.
“It’s a milestone for the platform, that’s for sure,” Inglis’ general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing Sebastian Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday. “It’s been performing to an increasingly high level, both commercially and in terms of the performance of graduates, over the last 12 to 18 months. It’s at the point where turnover since the platform began in mid-2017, if it hasn’t exceeded $50 million, it’s gone very close to it.
“The most recent sale grossed in excess of $4 million, so it’s become a very credible platform for trading bloodstock. We’ve seen a Group 1 winner today with Bella Vella, in this case a mare who cost not much more than $20,000, she has now won six races since being sold and has won over $600,000 in prize-money. It’s something of a fairytale result, really.”
Sent off as a 40/1 outsider in the 16-horse field, Bella Vella bounced straight to the lead under Todd Pannell. She travelled powerfully throughout and was still on the bridle well into the straight while all others were labouring to chase.
In the end, only one danger emerged late: last season’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Lyre (Lonhro) for Godolphin and rider Damien Thornton, who was looking to make it a Group 1 double after his win on Toffee Tongue (Tavistock) in the Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m).
Lyre charged home, but could only get within a long head of Bella Vella. Bam’s On Fire (Universal Ruler) finished third, two lengths from the winner.
“I’ve had lots of runners in Group 1s and I suppose you’ve just got to keep rolling the marble,” Clarken said. “Group 1s are so hard to get and all the teamwork that goes into it, she’s a stable star and a favourite of all of us.
“These guys in the ownership and who bought her have been with me from the start when I had five horses in work and now I’ve got 55, plus she ran in my father’s colours so it’s very, very special.
“Today she got left alone in front. She’s been in super form and things went our way.”
Clarken, though, is lukewarm about the prospects of chasing another Group 1 prize in two weeks, when The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) is conducted over the same course and distance as the Sangster. Instead, he’s tempted to give her a spell before bringing her back for a campaign aimed at the Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) at Moonee Valley in September.
“We’re just happy to get the win today,” Clarken said. “Everything she had in her she gave to us. And I think she deserves the time now.”
Two-year-old Away Game (Snitzel), aiming to become the first two-year-old to defeat her elders in a Group 1 since the Pattern was introduced in 1979, finished fifth. Her defeat leaves Bella Vella’s sire, Commands (Danehill), as the most recent juvenile to defeat the older horses in a Group race; he won the Missile Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) on the last day of his two-year-old year.
Favourite Sunlight (Zoustar) coursed wide throughout with Barend Vorster the pilot. She was the first horse beaten and finished last, more than seven lengths from Bella Vella.
It has been quite the journey for Bella Vella, who was purchased from the draft of Willow Park Stud at the 2016 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $100,000 by Paul Moroney Bloodstock on behalf of Glenn.
Trained initially by Michael Moroney, she won a Pakenham maiden as a two-year-old. Switched to Sydney and to the stables of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, she raced twice for a win at Hawkesbury, before then joining Matthew Vella. She was consistent in Sydney but only had one win for Vella, in a Benchmark 73 handicap at Wyong in March, 2018.
Offered in the 2019 April Monthly Online Sale by her owners, the family of Sir Owen Glenn, Bella Vella was sold after failing to get in foal to Glenn’s star galloper Criterion (Sebring), who had proven subfertile.
She was purchased for $22,500 to the bid of professional punter John Kelton, best known for racing Group 1 winner Alcopop (Jeune) but also renowned for applying form analysis to the tried horse market. However, Kelton said it was trainer David Jolly, a part-owner in the horse, who put the syndicate together.
“David found her and liked her and she was quite a well-bred horse too so we thought if we could improve her and get some more wins into her, she’d have good residual value too,” Kelton said.
Clarken added: “David actually found her and some of my owners were looking at her as well so we put a syndicate together and bought her. Obviously it’s a fairytale story now.”
Kelton is an unabashed fan of the Inglis Digital platform and believes that Bella Vella will not be the last subsequent Group 1 winner to be offered through the system.
“We love it,’’ he said. “In the past couple of years it’s really grown and the sale this week was huge and was very successful again.
“We can sit in the luxury of our own houses and do the work from there, it’s a very easy platform to use. There’s a lot more good quality stock there now every month so we’re more than happy to keep buying online from Inglis, we’ll be coming back for sure.’’
Hutch believes that Inglis’ managing director Mark Webster and Inglis Digital’s business manager Nick Melmeth deserve plenty of plaudits for the success of the online platform, which will get its biggest test next Sunday when the Australian Broodmare Sale is conducted through Inglis Digital.
“Mark Webster has always been a massive advocate of innovation and, in Nick Melmeth, he’s had someone who not only has assisted in the development of the platform but also has created huge confidence in the market,” Hutch said. “Nick has put together a platform that people now recognise as a very credible way in which to trade bloodstock, it is used and endorsed by a huge volume of the biggest names in Australasian bloodstock.
“It’s such an important milestone for the platform to have offered a filly that has subsequently gone on to win a Group 1. It just highlights and emphasises the quality of stock being offered. It’s a great credit to Will Clarken, David Jolly, John Kelton, David and Kayley Johnson, Brett Howard, all those people associated with that filly. It’s just a fantastic story.
“Before this, Inglis Digital had been involved in some very significant trades, whether that be selling 25 per cent of Mustajeer who went on to run well in the Caulfield Cup, selling Manaya for $400,000 last July, now through to this. And now, we have a landmark sale in that our Australian Broodmare Sale will be conducted through the Digital platform.
“The platform keeps gaining credibility. It’s taken a while for people to become familiar with the platform, but as people allude to sale after sale after sale, the quality of stock offered through the platform has improved astronomically since its inception. It’s very user-friendly and provides effectively what is an invaluable service to the Australasian bloodstock industry and to international markets as well. Through many of the sales, there is stock traded not just domestically but also internationally through the platform.”
Bella Vella was the first local to win the Sangster in 19 years. The last was Umaline (Umatilla) for John Hall.