Thanks to Mother Nature, Bellatrix Star has all the hallmarks of being an old-fashioned mystery runner as she adds a New Zealand twist to a spring curtain-raiser for three-year-old fillies at Caulfield.
Bellatrix Star will take her place in the Group 3 Quezette Stakes as one of the better-performed juveniles in New Zealand from last season.
That can’t be disputed after Bellatrix Star relegated Move To Strike and Velocious into the minor placings at Group 2 level in the Eclipse Stakes at Pukekohe.
Velocious reversed that result in winning the Karaka Millions while Move To Strike landed the Group 1 Sires’ Produce Stakes as Bellatrix Star was sidelined when her season came to a premature end because of shin soreness.
Establishing a more immediate measure of where she might fit into the Quezette picture is not so straightforward.
Trainer Mark Walker used a recent jumpout to fine-tune Bellatrix Star’s Quezette build-up but a murky Caulfield morning made it impossible to assess the merit of the filly’s work.
Boutique New Zealand syndicator John Galvin is happy to solve one of what he says are two potential missing pieces of a puzzle for his Fortuna Racing owners.
“There's been no footage of the jumpout because it was heavy fog, but she ran really well,” Galvin told The Straight.
Galvin, the syndicator behind the extraordinary Group 1-winning career of Melody Belle, is also taking confidence in jockey Michael Dee keeping a raceday association.
“He rode her in the jumpout and has been riding her in her work … so she's ready to go,” he said.
What Galvin isn’t so sure about is how to decipher whether what happened on one side of the Tasman Sea last season can translate into a winning result on the other side eight months later.
With that in mind, he can understand how the Star Witness filly, purchased for $NZ80,000 at Karaka in 2023 in unison with close friend David Ellis of Te Akau Racing fame, has been undersold in Quezette discussions in a contest where Blue Diamond Stakes placegetter Kuroyanagi has a race-fitness advantage on most of her rivals, including Bellatrix Star.
“I guess it's one of those things … New Zealand two-year-old form against proven Australian two-year-old form,” Galvin said.
“It's a bit hard to line up, so you could expect people to be cautious. And she hasn't had a run since the Karaka Millions, so she's been off the scene for a long time.”
But having Walker in Bellatrix Star’s corner gives Galvin enough reason to suggest the filly will acquit herself well after enjoying a long association with the Te Akau Racing-backed trainer.
“Mark is a trainer’s trainer,” Galvin said. “He trained his first runner for me 21 or 22 years ago and we’ve had many winners since.”
Walker has made a seamless transition to trans-Tasman training, a move made easier by the sprinting exploits of Imperatriz as she went on an unbeaten run during last year’s spring carnival for Te Akau Racing.
His Cranbourne string continued to expand during the 2023/24 season and Galvin says the new stable has obvious advantages for horses coming from New Zealand.
“Instead of having to do hit-and-run trips across the Tasman, there’s now a base,” he said.
“So if we've got a horse that we think potentially could measure up against the Aussies, then it's just a matter of making the decision. We don't make it lightly.”
“Mark (Walker) is a trainer’s trainer. He trained his first runner for me 21 or 22 years ago and we’ve had many winners since.”
John Galvin
It’s a system that has worked well for Fortuna’s veteran Leaderboard, a New Zealand St Leger and Wellington Cup winner who has been a fixture on Victoria’s jumps circuit this year in his first season over the fences.
And that same blueprint will be used to construct a VRC Oaks campaign for Fortuna’s unraced Contributer filly Our Paramour.
Our Paramour will make her race debut on the Victorian provincial scene next week with Galvin having the utmost conviction in Walker’s long-term placement.
“He’s a guy that I always trust his judgement,” Galvin said.
“So if he says to me I think we should send this filly to Australia and try to qualify for the VRC Oaks, I don’t even bother to question it.
“That’s because he will always gives his reasons and they always make sense.”
