A Season of Success continues ...

With the 2017/18 New Zealand racing season drawing to a close next week, Te Akau continues to reflect on a wonderful season of 17 Group and Listed winners - five at Group 1 level -  a new record for the stable ...

Champion Two-Year-Old Melody Belle (3 f Commands - Meleka Belle, by Iffraaj) emulated her Karaka Million (Listed, 1200m) victory a year later when waltzing away with the $70,000 Mongolian Khan Trophy (Gr. 3, 1200m) on Karaka Million night at Ellerslie.

In doing so, she became the first Karaka Million (Listed, 1200m) winner since its inception 10 years ago to win at the Karaka Million meeting a year on.

The Group One winner recorded her fifth win from 10 starts, taking her earnings to $913,000, after careering away by three and a half lengths for the Fortuna Melody Belle Syndicate (Mgr: John Galvin).

Te Akau principal David Ellis purchased the stellar filly for $57,500 at the 2016 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale, from the draft of Haunui Farm, and after beginning her career with a polished display on debut at Ruakaka, she went from strength to strength: winning the Karaka Million, Sires' Produce Stakes (Gr. 1, 1400m) at Awapuni, and Sires' Produce Stakes (Gr. 2, 1400m) at Eagle Farm, Brisbane, in succession.

“It's not easy to compare horses, and we've had Champion Two-Year-Olds Darci Brahma, Maroofity, Warhorse, and War Affair, but the way Melody Belle won those three big races said to me that in thirty years of buying, syndicating, and training horses she's as good a two-year-old as we've ever had,” Ellis said.

After winning the Sires in Brisbane, rider Opie Bosson said: “She was just travelling turning for home and when I let her down she gave me a huge sprint. She has impressed me hugely in every start this season. She's professional in everything she does, has a great attitude, and a dazzling turn of foot. She's shown her class on both sides of the Tasman, which is never easy as a two-year-old”.

By *record-breaking sire Commands (Danehill) from first crop Iffraaj (Zafonic) mare Meleka Belle, Melody Belle was bred by Marie Leicester, from a family started by her parents, James & Annie Sarten, in 1939.

“She's the second Melody Belle,” Leicester said. “Mum raced the other one [by Taipan II] and she raced particularly well too, so it must be a good name. She won the Te Aroha Breeders' Stakes in 1975, when it was in its infancy.”

The famous Belle family stems from the 1939 arrival of Belle Fox. She had two fillies: Belle Rosa (Instinct) and Belle Time (Summertime).

“The older Melody Belle came from Mum's line, the Belle Rosa line, and this one comes from Dad's one, the Belle Time line,” Leicester said.

“She (latest Melody Belle) traces back to Honey Belle, who was a very good mare. She won the Foal Stakes when it used to be on New Year's Day at Ellerslie, the Wellington Guineas, and the George Adams Handicap at Flemington, in the late 60s,” she said.

The grand-dam of Melody Belle, Empress Belle (Sir Tristram), left Tsarina Belle (Stravinsky), a half-sister to Meleka Belle, who finished third in the 1000 Guineas and second in the Champagne Stakes as a two-year-old.

Meleka Belle, a beautiful looking mare, was a winner at Taupo, when Leicester was Club President, and Melody Belle is her first foal.

Regarding the mating of Meleka Belle to Commands, to produce Melody Belle, Leicester said: “I'd always wanted to send a mare to Commands, and every time I saw him in Australia I'd fall in love with him a bit more. I loved his pedigree and everything about him. I thought Meleka Belle was the ideal mare to go to him, and Commands actually died before Melody Belle was born.

“Melody Belle doesn't seem to worry what the track is like. That takes me back to Tri Belle, Star Belle and Honey Belle. They could go through it (ground) if it was wet and loose, but not if it was gluey. None of the family could deal with drying, sticky, tracks.

“They say she's a tough little girl; well most of the Belle fillies are tough. They've got that toughness in them and that determination. She's a good workmanlike filly and tough. They take a fair bit of work and they just seem to relish it.”

In January this year, Ellis bought the half-sister to Melody Belle, also bred by Leicester, by Not A Single Doubt (Lot 371) in Book 1 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Yearling Sales, from the Haunui Farm draft.

Immensely valuable, by top sire Not A Single Doubt, a son of the undisputed king of Australian sires Redoute's Choice (Danehill), she registered the highest price ever paid for a filly by the sire ($900,000).

Named Exaltation, owned by the Te Akau 2018 Fabulous Fillies Breeding Syndicate (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM), the rising two-year-old filly has begun three-quarter pace work at the Te Akau stables in Matamata, and ready to jump out from the race day gates before a scheduled trial on Tuesday 7 August at Te Teko.

*Commands set an Australian record of 155 individual winners in the 2010-11 racing season.