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Clarken Racing | Clarken Racing News 53099 Bella Vella Sights Set On Another G 1

Bella Vella sights set on another G1

Bella Vella sights set on another G1

For the second time in her life, Bella Vella is aiming to go from breeding barn to Group 1 glory and, again, Will Clarken has been charged with making it happen.

While that first mission was ultimately successful, the Adelaide-based trainer still concedes there were mistakes he's learned from for the sequel.

"I know we thought in a much lower grade she was ready to go first time out for us and she wasn't, she wasn't near ready," Clarken said.

"I know this time we have to give her lot of galloping simulation before we take her to the races because she's going to have to compete at a higher level straight away."

Bella Vella was purchased at the Magic Millions broodmare sale last winter by Rosemont Stud for $1.9 million but failed to get in foal, despite all relevant tests showing no issues.

She first went to the barn in 2018 and was unsuccessfully covered by Criterion, a champion horse who was later discovered to have significant fertility issues as a stallion.

She'll return to the breeding barn this spring but, given she was showing she'd lost none of her zest for racing, connections opted to put her back in work to pass time with a goal of another G1 Sangster Stakes win.

"She's going to have a lot of jumpouts, she's had two already and I think she'll have five trials before she goes to the races," Clarken said.

"With a long layoff, we've just got to switch her back on again.

"There's no pressure at all because Mitho (Rosemont Stud's Anthony Mithen) and I have the same mindset, that the horse is 100 per cent the first priority.

"She has to go out there and not just run but be ultra-competitive first-up and, if she's not, she'll be going straight back to the paddock and waiting to get covered again next season."

Bella Vella will make her return on April 23 ahead of what is hoped to be a Sangster run, second-up, on May 7.

She'll trial for the final time a couple of weeks prior to her race return, although it's planned that final trial will feel just like a race to the G1-winning mare.

"It'll be 1000-metre trial on a big track at Morphetville and Murray Bridge and it'll be handlebars down," Clarken said.

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Keeping it in the family

Later in the day, a pair of lots sold for $200,000 respectively to secure their placings as the joint-second-top lots on the second day of trade. Lot 273, the first of the duo to go under the hammer, is a filly by Yulong’s Written Tycoon who sold to Ridgeport Holdings, Clarken Bloodstock, and Suman Hedge Bloodstock (FBAA). The filly is out of Blue Morpho (Hussonet) who from 16 starts on the track managed three wins, including landing the 2018 Laelia Stakes (Listed, 1600m).  Clarken and his training partner Niki O’Shea know about the family, with the filly’s brother, the unraced Windrow, and her Alabama Express half-sister, who Clarken bought for $80,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in 2021, both residents of their Murray Bridge stable.  “The quality always makes money and there have been some really nice types and there’s been no doubt that they have been well received. We were narrowly beaten on the Zoustar filly [Lot 255] earlier today and we were lucky enough to get the Written Tycoon filly a second ago,” Will Clarken told ANZ Bloodstock News. “I’ve got her two relations who have shown great promise and haven’t been to the races yet. Written Tycoon has been a good stallion to the yard and we’ve got Kuroyanagi who was Group 1-placed in the Blue Diamond and it’s going to be for the same ownership group [Ridgeport].” “We’ve got four so far [on the day], we’ve been sent a few and I think there’s a couple more on the list for the rest of the day, but we really came here to buy what we thought was the best filly and the best colt and I think we’ve done that. “Adelaide has been a really happy hunting ground for us. We bought Beau Rossa here and he was narrowly beaten in a Group 1. I bought Galaxy Patch out of here, Prawn Baba and  both of them have run in a Hong Kong Derby [Galaxy Patch second in 2024] and I just know the sale and it’s been really good for us. “Let’s hope the Magic Millions lives on here in South Australia. Obviously there are some changes ahead, but it’s a great asset to have a sale in our backyard.”Story from ANZ Bloodstock News

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‘Quality’ So You Think colt heads to Clarken and O’Shea

A week on from claiming Adelaide Cup (Gr 2, 1200m) success with Silent Surrente (Fiorente), Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea secured a win in the sales ring when they went to $240,000 to secure a stunning colt by So You Think (High Chaparral) early on day one of selling at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale. Catalogued as Lot 25 and offered by Mill Park Stud, the colt is out of winning mare Miss Otto (Elusive Quality), making him a brother to Group 2 winner, and now Twin Hills Stud-based sire, Peltzer (So You Think). Bidding ringside at the Morphetville sales complex, the stable’s racing manager Lachie Weekley was thrilled to snare the colt, who was knocked down to Clarken Bloodstock in partnership with Suman Hedge Bloodstock and prominent South Australian businessman Rob Chapman. “He’s just got a lovely action and a really nice demeanour, beautiful head on him, great eye,” Weekley said.  “Very importantly he came off a terrific farm in Mill Park Stud down at Meningie, from Chris Watson and the team, their record is second to none and one of the best in the land.” The partnership, who purchased four lots at this sale last year for a combined total of $285,000, had to stay strong to win the colt, and plan to continue the momentum on the second day.  “We were right at [our limit on him]. We wanted to be pretty strong on him, obviously he’s a quality colt so we didn’t want to miss out and there was some good competition as always, with those nice horses. “The clients that we bought him for, they were keen to attempt to try and buy the best horse here and that’s what we saw him as. We did the job early and there’s a couple over the next day or two and that’ll be us.”  A close relation to 2019 Adelaide Guineas (Listed, 1600m) winner So We Are (So You Think), Weekley said the colt will be given time to mature and develop.   “He’s just a lovely horse and we’ll give him a bit of time. He’d be more that sort of three-year-old type. We’ll just let the ball come on to the bat.” Mill Park finished the first day as the leading vendors by aggregate, having sold 12 yearlings for $1,031,000, the only vendor to break the million barrier. 

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Peltzer's brother turns heads

Peltzer's brother will stay in South Australia and be trained by Will Clarken and Niki O'Shea after being bought for $240,000 in the opening session of Monday's Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale. Offered as part of leading SA nursery Mill Park Stud's draft, the colt (Lot 25) was on the shortlist of several good judges but was ultimately knocked down to Clarken's Racing Manager Lachie Weekley on behalf of the stable, owner Rob Chapman and bloodstock agent Suman Hedge. As well as leaving multiple Stakes winner and now young stallion Peltzer, who was purchased for $260,000 as a yearling, the colt's dam Miss Otto has also left Stakes-placed filly Madison Kate. Weekley said the stable targeted the colt and was buoyed by the record of Mill Park Stud, the property on SA's Limestone Coast which has bred or raised more than 20 Group 1 winners. "He's a beautiful colt, just a lovely, well-balanced horse," Weekley said. "He has a lovely So You Think head on him and he looks to have a lot of class. "You'd like to think he'd be that sort of miler type O like. "We tend not to rush our young horses, it's cliche to say but we'll give him plenty of time. "Mill Park Stud is such a fantastic nursery, Chris Watson and the team down there do such a good job and the stats are just phenomenal. "They've nearly got the alphabet of Stakes winners, which speaks for itself."   Story by James Tzaferis from Racing.com

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