News Item.
| REMEMBERING BELLA’S BRO.
It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the retirement of our old war horse Bella’s Bro who was retired after a disappointing run at Morphettville recently. While “Old Bella’s” as he was affectionally known will not go down in folk law as one of the Champions of the turf he will go down as a special horse to the Syndicate who raced him. Purchased for $70,000 at the 2003 Easter Yearling sales, Bella’s Bro was a half brother to our Group Winning filly that most of the Syndicate previously raced in La Bella Dame. While obviously lacking the abilities of his half sister Bella’s lacked nothing in toughness,ressiliance and soundness and went on to have a career that spanned a good seven years and saw him race on until a 10 year old. In all, Bella’s Bro raced on 58 occasions (for 20 different jockeys) for 10 wins,12 seconds,4 thirds and 9 fourths for total prize money of $200,170.00-a remarkably consistent horse. He won 6 Metropolitan races in Adelaide and a Penola Cup under Leon Macdonald and 3 Country races with his previous trainer Mick Price. Bella’s Bro certainly came a long way from his very first race start at Cranbourne where he dumped jockey Vlad Duric on the way to the barriers and raced accordingly finishing 9th of 11 prompting Vlad to question the future of his racing career on his return to scale. Bella’s obviously didn’t share Vlad’s opinion and won at his very next start at Benalla if not to prove a point and was well ridden on that occasion by Matt Gatt.A couple of Metropolitan placings then followed confirming our suspicions that some ability was there and after a short spell Bella’s Bro went onto win 3 races in succession at Traralgon,Ararat and Morphettville.Having thought that we might have got the most out of him here in Victoria, on the recommendation of our Syndicate trainer in Mick Price we transferred the horse over to Leon Macdonald in an effort to place him to advantage and that we did. Arriving with Leon with approx $48,000 in the bank he was to then race on over many year’s accumulating a further $150,000 in stakes and many cherished moments. Bella’s was always one to give excitement (he never did it easy for us!) and his continued pattern of leading in his races always raised the blood pressure as more often than not he would be run down in the closing stages of a race or indeed hang on for a close win. Nothing was dull with Bella’s and we all as a Syndicate began to enjoy and get used to the thrills and excitement he gave us all. As everyone knows all good things eventually come to an end and Bella’s urge to be competitive on race day has now passed. It is now the Syndicates turn to look after “Old Bella” in retirement after all the years that he has looked after us! Well done Bella’s and enjoy the next stages of your life-you were no star but a wonderfully honest horse!
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