Next stop Sydney on the Melody Belle farewell tour
A tilt at the Tancred Stakes among options connections are considering with record-breaking mare
Champion racehorse Melody Belle (Commands) might have run her last race in New Zealand at the weekend but she still has some unfinished business across the Tasman.
Melody Belle’s history-making 14 Group 1 wins have all, bar one, been in her home country and managing owner John Galvin wants to add to that tally on Australian soil, ideally in Sydney, before her retirement at the end of this campaign.
The authority of her milestone win in the Bonecrusher Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) on Saturday, where she beat her Jamie Richards-trained stablemate and fellow multiple Group 1 winner Avantage (Fastnet Rock) by a length and a quarter, went a long way to giving Galvin and the rest of the six-year-old mare’s band of connections the necessary courage to consider taking on some of Australia’s best in the Emerald City before her race bridle is hung up for good.
“Our future plans were to be decided on the result on Saturday. She needed to win and win well to consider coming to Australia again and she did that,” said Galvin.
Melody Belle’s sole elite-level success in Australia came in the 2019 edition of the Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at Flemington and during her most recent mission over the ditch she had only one start and that resulted in a third placing behind Arcadia Queen (Pierro) and Fifty Stars (Sea The Stars) when beaten a shade over two and a half lengths in the Mackinnon Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at Flemington in November.
Now she’s all armoured up and ready to return to the highly competitive Sydney scene to prove herself outside the confines of her home country once again.
Galvin said they are considering several options there, including the Tancred Stakes (Gr 1, 2400m) in two weeks’ time at Rosehill Gardens.
“Jamie (Richards) and I had a brief chat after the race and we are now thinking about the Tancred. She has never run a mile and a half before but the way she’s been running out 2000 metres that could be an obvious target.”
Or, he said, they might reserve her for day two of the Championships at Randwick on April 10 with either the Coolmore Legacy (Gr 1, 1600m) or the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) on the agenda.
“For Jamie, and I, our last burning ambition is to win with her in Sydney.”
Whilst Melody Belle now holds the all-time record for the number of Group 1s won by a New Zealand–trained thoroughbred, those close to her still have a mighty respect for Sunline (Desert Sun), the mare that, until now, had stood before her in the record books.
“Let’s put things in perspective. Sunline won most of her Group 1s in Australia and Melody Belle has won most of hers in New Zealand, so it’s not fair to give complete comparisons.”
Casting the public’s comparisons to greats of the past aside, Galvin, who heads the Fortuna Melody Belle Syndicate, said it had been an “amazing” ride with the mare they paid just $57,500 for at the 2016 Karaka Yearling Sale.
“We always buy to budget and our budget and brief that year for David Ellis was let’s buy a nicely bred filly that is capable of competing in a Karaka Million and we don’t want to spend anymore than $80,000. He delivered under budget and a champion mare.
“It’s been a wonderful story. It’s amazing for the ownership group of 34 that are from all over New Zealand and often from little places. People now have common links down at the local pub or club and now have a circle of friends that follow her career. It’s been a wonderful down to earth Kiwi story for us.”
Melody Belle has earned her group of humble owners just over $4 million in prize–money and they look set for another decent financial windfall when she goes to public auction to be sold as a broodmare prospect.
“She will be sold at auction. Our syndicate is too big with too much disparity in age group of members to retain her as a broodmare so she will go on the market for public auction unless there’s a compelling private offer in the meantime.
“There’s no decision about which sale that will be, we are just concentrating on her racing career at the moment,” he said.
Galvin, along with his wife Jessica and their three young children, are savouring every single joyous moment of the journey with Melody Belle as it winds to an inevitable end.
“Our children have grown up with Melody Belle. Around the house we have all her photos and trophies. It has been very, very special from a family and personal point of view.
“It has been really life changing for not just me and my family but the rest of the ownership group as well.”