Burgundy Belle Bombs Them

Making it three from five, Burgundy Belle (3 f Burgundy - Spin ‘N Grin, by Spinning World) provided Te Akau trainer Jamie Richards with his 92^nd win this season when bolting in on Sunday at Trentham.

In the $25,000 Crown Prosecutor
Cup, for three-year-olds over 1400 metres, handling the heavy footing was
always going to be paramount and having won her debut on Slow9 by 5.5 lengths
gave punters a significant leg-up on her prospects.

Rider Johnathan Parkes said: “I
actually didn't want to be as handy as what I was, but we were posted a bit
wide early and she wanted to get on with the job, so I let her roll forward and
she was simply too good. She's a progressive filly and will carry on with the
job.

“It's not a bottomless Heavy11
(footing) that we can get at Trentham, and she seemed to get through the going
pretty well.”

Impressive winning on debut and
again in the next grade at her following start, both in December, before
spelling after a notable fifth in the Mongolian Khan Trophy (Gr. 3, 1200m) on
Karaka Million Night (26 Jan.) at Ellerslie, Burgundy Belle had resumed with a
very good third in the 3YO 1200 metres on 14 April at Te Rapa.

“She was going to the Cambridge
Breeders' Stakes (a week earlier), but we had a wide draw and some jockey
troubles so we decided to pull out of that and have a go at this race,” said
John Galvin, who manages the Fortuna Burgundy Belle Syndicate.

“I was out walking the track before the race and although it's testing, it's not super wet, but she handles any tracks I think, so we're very pleased.”

Jamie Richards said: “We thought
she was going well enough to be competitive in the Cambridge Breeders' Stakes,
but John (Galvin) and I had a good talk and he was happy to wait for this race.
It looked ideal because she can handle heavy ground and we'd been pleased with
her work.

“We left the blinkers off when
resuming at Te Rapa, and left them off when getting up to 1400 metres today and
we'll look to stretch her a little bit in distance. Although she wanted to go
keenly early, I thought she settled nicely when some speed went into the race.
She quickened up and won quite well.

“She's an exciting filly and
there certainly looks to be more wins in her.”

Burgundy Belle returned $2.50
& $1.20 on the NZ TAB tote, running the 1400 metres in 1:26.4 on footing
upgraded to Heavy10 after the (first) race.

A beautifully bred filly, her
sire, Burgundy (Redoute's Choice), won five stakes races and finished third in the Telegraph
(Gr. 1, 1200m), while dam Spin ‘N Grin was also a very smart performer, winning
the Eight Carat Classic (Gr. 2, 1600m) and finishing second in the New Zealand
Breeders' Stakes (Gr. 1, 1600m).

Burgundy Belle is a filly that Te Akau principal David
Ellis had a very strong hand in producing.

“I bought Spin ‘N Grin as a yearling for $65,000 out of the Premier Sale at Karaka, and Mark (Walker) trained her for Tom and Sue Roper,” Ellis said. “I took her over to breed from and Karyn (Fenton-Ellis) and I actually bred this filly. We sold her to John Galvin and she looks like another stakes' quality filly like Windborne and Darci's Dream that we bred and John's Fortuna Syndicate owners have raced.

“This filly is the fifth individual winner from Spin ‘N Grin and we've got a really classy Burgundy yearling colt at home from the mare that we've kept to race, and she's back in foal to Darci Brahma.

“I also bought Burgundy from the Pencarrow draft at
Karaka, and he's doing a fantastic job as a young stallion. He's had the (New
Zealand Bloodstock) Filly of the Year, Dijon Bleu, and even though his first
three two-year-olds to race all won, he never raced as a two-year-old himself
and most of his horses aren't precocious types. They're more the types to keep
developing as nice three and four year olds and we're starting to see that now.
They're pretty good horses, stretching out over middle distances, and the ones
we've got we're very happy with.”

Burgundy Belle was strapped by Ashley
Handley.

“Ashley is a really good addition to the team,” Richards said. “She's very capable, brings experience, and could develop into a travelling foreman type role.”

Photo credit - www.raceimages.co.nz

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