‘I don’t think that is off the table at all’
Owner-breeder Michael Christian confirms The Everest target for Bella Nipotina with trip to Royal Ascot also potentially on cards
The Christian family’s incredible journey with homebred mare Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai) looks set for another thrilling chapter after Michael Christian confirmed that Saturday’s ultra-impressive Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m) winner will return for another spring campaign.
A circle has been drawn around October’s The Everest (1200m) for the now three-time Group 1 winner, who incredibly seems to be improving with age, while a potential trip over to the UK for next year’s Royal Ascot meeting is also not off the table.
Trained by Ciaron Maher, who is set to win his fifth consecutive Melbourne trainers’ premiership, the rising seven-year-old looked a fresh horse as she demolished her 16 rivals in Saturday’s 1400-metre event, despite the race being her ninth outing of this campaign.
Ridden for the first time by Ryan Maloney, and despite getting no cover three-wide throughout, Bella Nipotina easily defeated her stablemate Semana (Winning Rupert) by 1.1 lengths to claim the final elite-level race of the season.
“It’s been an incredible ride for pretty much her entire career, but especially this campaign,” Michael Christian, owner of Longwood Thoroughbred Farm, told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“In the early part of the campaign she had real bad luck then she went to Perth [The Quokka] and was caught four-wide but still managed to be beaten just over a length in fourth.
“I remember having the conversation with Ciaron about what we’d do going forward after that race and he suggested that we just keep her ticking over and head to Queensland to see if we could get a run in either the Doomben 10,000 or Kingsford Smith Cup.
“We were both really keen to try her over 1400 metres and she’s just thrived up there. We ran her in the Doomben 10,000 and she has just pulled up so well every time since that run.
“She’s had a couple of management issues, including having to trot up to satisfy stewards before the Kingsford Smith, but she just keeps producing.”
Christian revealed that Maher was extremely confident about Bella Nipotina’s chances in Saturday’s Group 1, and had already set out his idea of The Everest pre-race.
“I was speaking to Ciaron before the race and I said to him ‘what do you think?’ and he said he’d be absolutely shocked if she didn’t win,” he said.
“The confidence of the man was huge and the reality is that she was better on Saturday than she was when she started this prep in February.
“Ciaron said to me that she is as well as she has ever been and that they’d like to return in the spring for The Everest, so I said ‘Hey, sounds good to me!'”
Bella Nipotina has been based at Tony Gollan’s stable throughout the Brisbane Winter Carnival, and Christian was full of praise for the yard’s attention to detail with his star mare.
“She’s been staying at Tony Gollan’s yard in Queensland for the last six or seven weeks and I hope he doesn’t mind me saying this but he said she’s the toughest horse he’s ever come across, which is a big compliment coming from him,” he said.
“The care he and his staff have shown her is nothing short of phenomenal. Anna and Olivia, the two sisters who have been looking after her, have been great.
“Olivia was strapping on Saturday and to see the joy the mare brings her just provides you with so much satisfaction and it just goes to show you what a wonderful industry we have that a horse can have such an impact on people.
“I get so many messages from people who just love the horse for what she represents, her bravery, honesty and toughness and I think people in this sport really respect that.”
Saturday’s emphatic victory was the ninth of Bella Nipotina’s 52-start career, taking her prize-money earnings to $10,976,625, and was also one of the rare occasions that the daughter of Pride Of Dubai (Street Cry) started favourite as she went off a well-backed $2 chance.
“I’ve never felt more nervous before a race than on Saturday,” Christian admitted. “I reckon in the 51 starts before Saturday she had only started favourite two or three times.
“She doesn’t know the odds, but I do, and I was just pleased for the mare that she could deliver when she was expected to. It was emphatic and it capped off an amazing year for her.
“I was also talking to an elder member of the Melbourne Racing Committee on Saturday and he was saying he couldn’t remember a mare running in all four of the Group 1s during the carnival, never mind winning two of the races and running a close-up second in the other two.”
Christian also pointed out that Bella Nipotina has sometimes been viewed as being just below the top bar of sprinters, but that recent results, and her standing amongst other mares when it comes to prize-money, have confirmed she is indeed at the pinnacle level of Australian sprinters.
“She’s always really been viewed as just sort of behind the very elite sprinters,” Christian said. “But to beat Think About It and Private Eye when at their best in the Giga Kick Stakes last October and then to beat I Wish I Win in the Doomben 10,000 just shows that she is at the absolute point-end ability wise.
“She sits fifth on the all-time mares’ earning list for prize-money behind Winx, Makybe Diva, Sunline and Verry Elleegant, who are all staying horses. So she’s alone in being a sprinting mare to earn that sort of money and we’re so blessed to have an association with her.
“I’m delighted for her that she’s proven that, and it’s hugely gratifying for my family as breeders.”
Having declined to run in the race for the last two seasons, Christian revealed it will be full steam ahead to The Everest with Bella Nipotina, and that conversations have also been had about the mare heading over to the UK for the coveted Royal Ascot meeting.
“There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge yet but whether we have one run or two runs before The Everest will be Ciaron’s decision,” he said.
“We declined to run in the race two years ago to run in the Manikato Stakes instead, which she won by five lengths, and then last year we also chose not to run in the race, but we’re all onboard now to hopefully run in the race.
“We had contemplated coming over to Ascot this year, but a few things happened and it didn’t quite play out. From a personal standpoint I’d love to go over there and then maybe get her covered by a European stallion on southern hemisphere time.
“I don’t think that is off the table at all, if she were to have a good spring and return in good form in the autumn then going to Royal Ascot could be her last hurrah before getting a cover.
“The horse’s welfare will always be number one priority and if there comes a time that Ciaron says ‘she’s done’ then that’ll be it for her racing career, but she loves being pampered and being in the stable, which is reflected in her racetrack performances.”
Bred by Christian’s Saconi Thoroughbreds, Bella Nipotina was purchased for $80,000 by Lindsay Park Racing, Andrew Williams Bloodstock, and Mt Hallowell Stud from the Rosemont stud draft at Book 1 of the 2019 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, with Christian retaining a 50 per cent share in the ownership.
A half-sister to three-time winner Bella Sorellina (Capitalist), she is the best of two winners to come out of the Christian’s homebred mare Bella Orfana, herself a half-sister to Group scorers Hallowell Belle (Starcraft) and Fuddle Dee Duddle (Red Ransom) being from the family of Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner In Top Swing (Beautiful Crown).
Bella Orfana unfortunately died earlier this year, with her final foal a weanling filly by Trapeze Artist (Snitzel).
“We’ve got a beautiful farm at Longwood and have a wonderful team,” Christian said. “To think we’re competing against the biggest players in the world and we can produce a horse of this strength and toughness and brilliance is a pinch yourself moment.”