Champion mare Melody Belle to go under the hammer at Magic Millions
The $4.2 million price tag achieved for Sunlight (Zoustar) at last year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale was a compelling factor in connections’ decision to sell champion New Zealander Melody Belle (Commands) on the Gold Coast in May, Barry Bowditch says.
Fortuna Thoroughbreds’ John Galvin announced yesterday that the grand Jamie Richards-trained rising seven-year-old mare would be auctioned unreserved on day one of the Magic Millions National sale.
Melody Belle surpassed one of New Zealand’s best ever racehorses, the Trevor McKee-trained Sunline (Desert Sun), for the number of Group 1 victories with her last-start win the New Zealand Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), her 14th at the highest-level, on March 13.
“The decision was made some time ago that 2021 would be her last racing season and our immediate focus has been on her racing campaign,” Galvin said.
“Recently the decision had to be made how and where we would sell her and we have decided the Gold Coast was the best option.
“Melody Belle has been an absolute life-changer for her connections. My wife Jessica has a share and is one of 34 individual owners who are spread right across New Zealand as well as one in Melbourne.”
Earlier this year, Magic Millions, Inglis and New Zealand Bloodstock put forward pitches in a bid to land Melody Belle but Galvin and his syndicate owners chose the former auction house to sell her.
The competition between the two Australian auction houses to attract the elite mares to their respective sales has become intense in recent years with Inglis investing heavily in its Chairman’s Sale format after Magic Millions had dominated the top-end of the market.
“I would suggest that our broodmare sale over the past seven or eight years has become the focal point of the breeding industry in Australasia,” Bowditch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Obviously, last year’s sale, whether you’re looking at Viddora, Unforgotten or Sunlight, these mares are making massive money and the market has got a huge amount of faith in us being able to attract buyers from all parts of the world and that they can achieve results that are rare and unprecedented in this part of the world.”
Sunlight’s $4.2 million price tag was the highest-priced mare sold at auction in Australasia since 2008 when Milanova (Danehill) made $5 million at an Inglis sale.
Incidentally, both mares were bought by Coolmore.
As for what mark Melody Belle could reach, Bowditch did not want to put a ceiling on her price.
“I don’t think a mare like her has ever been offered at auction before, and definitely not in this part of the world, who has won as many Group 1s as she has,” Bowditch said.
“Everyone will have a figure in their head as to what a mare like her is worth, but mares of this quality are collector’s items. If you own her, no one else is going to own a mare who has won 14 Group 1s anywhere else in the world who they have been able to purchase at auction.
“When she enters the ring, she will get attention from all over the world, and deservedly so, and the sky’s the limit for a mare of Melody Belle’s stature, physique and pedigree.”
Bred by Marie Leicester, Melody Belle was purchased from the 2016 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale by Te Akau’s David Ellis for Galvin for NZ$57,500. She is one of two winners (from three foals to race) from Iffraaj (Zafonic) mare Meleka Belle, a half-sister to four stakes-placed horses, Tsarina Belle (Stravinsky), Desert Rain (Honor Grades), Kiwinsky (Stravinsky) and Housemaster (Housebuster).
She won the Karaka Million (RL, 1200m), the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and the BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) in Queensland during her two-year-old season. She has raced every year since and won the 2019 Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at Flemington to reinforce her talent in Australia to complement her dominance in her home country. Overall, she has won 19 of her 38 starts.
“One of the real keys to her success is her soundness,” Galvin said.
“She’s never had an issue physically and that has seen her continue racing at the highest level as a two, three, four, five and now six-year-old.
“She has won from 1100 metres to 2000 metres and on Saturday week she will get a chance to add 2400 metres as well (in the Tancred Stakes at Rosehill). She’s won over every trip and on every type of track.
“Melody Belle’s first season in training came just as Jamie had been appointed co-trainer at Te Akau and he’s been there the whole way through. While there’s been many more since, I know she holds a special place with Jamie as she was his first top-line horse.”
Magic Millions will also have the honour of conducting the Shadwell dispersal of mares, which was announced earlier this year. Sadly, the death of Shadwell founder Hamdan Al Maktoum was announced on Wednesday.
Yarraman Park Stud will consign the Shadwell draft at the Gold Coast, featuring 38 broodmares and race fillies, as well as 21 weanlings.
Bowditch said: “Obviously the Shadwell Dispersal in itself is something incredibly significant and the mares we have got on the back of that from clients from all over the place is hugely satisfying.
“Between now and the sale in late May, there will be a few nights where I will be too excited to sleep.”