Tarzino Trophy Countdown: Number 4 - Melody Belle 2018 & 2019

The first Group 1 of the New Zealand racing season always brings a great deal of excitement. As we get closer to the running of the 2020 Tarzino Trophy, we are taking a look at the top 10 performances in the race since the turn of the century.

First run in 1985 when named the Challenge Stakes, all through the years this race has attracted an extremely strong field. Given it is early in the season at Weight-For-Age conditions over 1400m, horses of the highest echelon use this race as a springboard to campaigns both in New Zealand and Internationally.

Previously named the Mudgway Stakes, the Mudgway Challenge Stakes and the Makfi Challenge Stakes, the race was renamed the Tarzino Trophy in 2017. Tarzino - a former Victoria Derby and Rosehill Guineas winner - now stands at Westbury Stud.

Te Akau Racing principle David Ellis has purchased many a yearling at Karaka in his time and is famed for top dollar purchases of supremely breed yearlings. But also in the locker of this expert judge of a young thoroughbred is the ability to buy at the lower end of the market, believing in the potential that others haven’t seen. It is from this second category that has come one sitting right at the top of the tangerine tree, the mighty mare Melody Belle.

But before we arrive at Lot 395 of the 2016 Premier Yearling Sale at the famous sale grounds, we need to go back to an event in 1937 to discover where it all began.

Sitting in their Taranaki home, young farmers John and Annie Sarten could never have imagined that their decision to have a go at breeding thoroughbreds would continue to have so much significance well into the 21st century. It was after grazing two horses for New Plymouth butcher George Tremlett that spurred them to send their mare Star Belle to the stallion of the day in Foxbridge. A year later, their daughter Marie was born and some 80 years and six thoroughbred generations later, she would breed this filly from her mare Meleka Belle, descending right back to that original bloodline.

By the stallion Commands, himself a full brother to Danewin, Ellis picked this filly up for $57,500 from the Haunui Farm draft. When John Galvin of Fortuna Thoroughbreds put together a 34 strong group to syndicate the horse, not even in their wildest dreams did they think they’d be able to recoup their purchase price more than 60 times over…and counting!

The filly was first seen on a racetrack as a September 2yo, prevailing easily by two lengths over 900m at Ruakaka.

The Karaka Million was always the early goal and the punters were fooled by a couple of relatively cold lead up runs.

Hindsight is wonderful thing looking back on it now, but history will tell you a Te Akau / Opie Bosson combination in the $1million juvenile showpiece paying $32.40 is craziness to the extreme! She duly prevailed swooping down the outside, kick starting an incredible four-straight (not out) unbeaten run for the aforementioned combination in the race.

After a minor injury, her March reappearance would be a maiden Group 1 victory in the Manawatu Sires Produce (1400m), cementing her status as New Zealand’s leading 2yo of the season by a margin.

As is customary when you are at the top in the Land of the Long White Cloud, a crack at the Aussies is next on the list. She headed to Brisbane and confirmed her high quality by dismantling a Sires Produce (Group 2, 1400m) field by five-lengths at Eagle Farm.

There was to be one more race in her 2yo season in June at Doomben, when she was unsuccessful in the JJ Atkins (Group 1, 1600m).

She had a relatively quiet New Zealand 3yo campaign racing three times exclusively at Ellerslie, 3rd when she returned in December, a very luckless 6th in the Railway (Group 1, 1200m) where there was an argument she would’ve won if not badly held up, and a Group 3 victory in the Mongolian Khan Trophy (1600m).

After an unsuccessful second tilt across the Tasman, all of the above was an entree for what was to come.

There was a changing of the guard at the stable and after previously training in partnership with his mentor Stephen Autrdige, the young Jamie Richards would take up an individual licence of his own for the 2018/19 season.

A trainer will always remember his first victory, but when it came courtesy of Melody Belle winning the Group 2 Foxbridge Plate (1200m) in her return as a 4yo it was all the more memorable!

As with so many before her, the Foxbridge was the lead up to the Tarzino Trophy.

The mare from Matamata was installed a $4.10 favourite for the running of the 2018 Tarzino Trophy. But as we’ve highlighted throughout our top 10 countdown, the field is always incredibly strong and this year was no different.

Hiflyer looked the main danger, the multiple Group winner at his favoured distance off the back of a solid Sydney campaign.

The Baker/Forsman team had VRC Derby winner Jon Snow and a horse that looked primed for the contest in Francaletta aimed up at the race.

A man who knew how to win the race in Gary Hennessy had Ocean Emperor, a dual Group 2 winning galloper considered good enough to take to a Kranji Mile, lined up for the fight.

The Oaks winner Savvy Coup, later good enough to win the Livamol (Group 1, 2040m) and compete in a Cox Plate (Group 1, 2040) was up from the South.

Karaka Million 3yo (1600m) victor Scott Base would round out the main dangers.

With number one hoop Bosson on the sideline, the pilots job was given to the Malayasian apprentice they called ‘Suppy’ - Shafiq Rusof - who had begun his career in New Zealand in fantastic fashion.

Jumping from barrier seven, the mare was quickly on the speed to sit second behind Ocean Emperor, and when the Cambridge duo of Jon Snow and Francaletta came either side, Suppy was not concerned. He was able to sit in a lovely position in fourth staying away from the rail.

Edging forward at the 700m with runners either side, horse and rider where able to find themselves ideally placed outside the two leaders when they rounded the corner.

In the battle down the straight, the true Melody Belle came to the fore. A runner who you eye ball in a fight at your peril.

Fighting off challenges from stablemate Our Abbedean and the tough Hiflyer, she was able to grind out the victory showing exceptional will to win. Tony Lee captured the effort perfectly when he said “Melody Belle, she is so tough!”.

The mare had given the stable their first win in the race, the trainer his first Group 1 since striking out on his own and the little jockey from Malaysia his first taste of elite level success.

Her second Group 1 victory would be closely followed by her third, as three weeks later she returned to the same track to score in the Windsor Park Stakes (1600m) in a dominant performance proving she had improved further from her Tarzino run.

There was to be a long lay off until she came back in January the following year, aiming up at the two sprint features on the New Zealand calendar. She was a massive run for 3rd in the Railway and was below her best in the Telegraph.

Proving she was still at the top of her game, she was back in Group 1 business in the BCD Group Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa, pouncing late on class gallopers Bostonian, Ardrossan and Volpe Veloce to go to four top level wins.

Then came victory in the Haunui Farm WFA Classic (Group 1, 1600m), in another superb field. Her fifth Group 1 spoil handed jockey Opie Bosson the remarkable record of obtaining all Group 1 races on the New Zealand calendar throughout his career.

On a serious roll now, not even a heavy track at Ellerslie and a first go beyond a mile could stop her on the way to a sixth top level victory. She went head to head with the well fancied Danzdanzdance in the Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (2000m), and produced another of those teak-tough performances to draw out the victor.

A well earned rest out at Te Akau Stud was in order over the winter, recharging the batteries to do it all over again!

Looking in need of a race day hit out and finishing in a solid 4th position, The Foxbridge Plate was again used as a return to the new season, where an historic bid for a sweep of the Hastings Triple Crown was the aspiration.

The heart rates would have gone up for connections in the camp when out of the hat came barrier draw 15, somewhere from which no horse had won the Tarzino Trophy.

In what was a recurrence from time to time in her career, punters drifted away as Endless Drama was installed the pre-race favourite. Off the back of his strong win in the Foxbridge and having previously raced with success in Europe and Australia, he looked to be coming into his best form.

Dual Group 1 winner Danzdanzdance, who had engaged her in a titanic battle six months prior, was also there to provide some stiff competition.

With Bosson engaged in Sydney riding stablemate Te Akau Shark the reigns were handed to Michael McNab, a talented jockey enjoying a rejuvenation of his career. From this alley and against this opposition, it would rely on all his ability to get the job done.

Jumping from the carpark, it was the opposite of the year before. When the field settled down, they were one off the rail in second last.

With plenty of speed, it would aid the back markers and when 15 or so lengths off them at the 800m McNab decided to push forward.

In a fair bit of traffic rounding the turn, the man aboard stayed ice cool. He had a horse under him that knew how to wind up.

The leaders were still rolling half way down, but this member of the Belle family would sprout wings with clear air. Picking off runners one-by-one, she powered to the lead and in a brilliant performance drew clear at the line.

Her seventh Group 1 was arguably her career best to date, considering the factors mounted against her during the run.

From here, she continued to thrive and the historic Triple Crown was achieved for the first time in effortless dominance. Her victory in the Windsor Park Stakes would draw her level with the great Mufhasa for domestic Group 1’s and when the ninth was achieved in the Livamol she was the outright holder of the record.

A trip to the white hot cauldron of spring racing in Melbourne was next on the agenda and it was first up here where she would prove herself as up there with the best in that jurisdiction. She would take an Australian Group 1 scalp when winning the Empire Rose (1600m) in a sensational display against the best Australian milers, her career best effort to date.

In an incredible 14 months, she had won 9 Group 1 races to compliment her other as a 2yo, stamping herself as one of the very best New Zealand has ever produced.

From there she would run a game second in the MacKinnon Stakes (Group 1, 2000m) to top line European mare Magic Wand, making huge ground at the close. This would earn her a spell in the paddock with the sun on her back over Christmas.

She would venture to Sydney in February this year, running gallant 3rd’s in the Group 1 Futurity (1400m) and the All-Star Mile, before a close up 4th in the premier Group 1 Sydney mile handicap The Doncaster (1600m).

After a short two start campaign post-lockdown in Sydney that didn’t quite go to plan, it was announced she will return home where fans in her home country will get to see her race here again.

The winner of 15 races from 32 starts and $3.4million in prizemoney, she has been awarded with accolades of Champion NZ 2yo 2017/18, Champion NZ Sprinter/Miler 2018/19 and NZ Horse of the Year 2018/19.

You could sum up this sensational race mare under the headings of Will To Win, Consistency, Versatility and Longevity.

John and Annie Sarten would be looking down, very proud at the decision they made in 1937!

Our Number 4 since the turn of the millennium is Melody Belle!