Melody Belle displayed special qualities right from day one: Autridge
Experienced trainer recounts champion mare’s early days at Te Akau as she prepares for sales ring
Champion mare Melody Belle (Commands), one of the rare gems to be offered at this week’s star-studded Magic MIllions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale, has been credited with helping shape the stunning career trajectory of New Zealand trainer Jamie Richards.
But Stephen Autridge, Richards’ senior training partner during the early part of Melody Belle’s racing career, yesterday revealed that he could sense the 14-time Group 1 winner was a bit different from an early age.
Te Akau’s David Ellis paid a relatively low NZ$57,500 for Melody Belle at the 2016 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale. He bought 17 yearlings from the Premier session and just one was cheaper than Melody Belle.
However, Autridge was immediately taken by the Marie Leicester-bred filly when canvassing the latest batch of yearlings who would come under his and Richards’ tutelage when scouring the paddocks at Te Akau Stud.
“Well, I tell you what, it goes back to the first day I saw her in the paddock at Te Akau Stud as an unbroken yearling,” Autridge told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“She just had a standout beautiful head. That day I had a drive around Te Akau Stud looking at all the yearlings I was going to train and she was the standout type.
“She was just a perfect horse to do anything with.”
Autridge trained Melody Belle with Richards in her first 12 starts before the partnership ended and the latter was appointed in sole charge of Te Akau Racing.
During that time, Melody Belle would progress from an October two-year-old debut winner at Ruakaka before showing her class three starts later with victory in the NZ$1 million Karaka Million (RL, 1200m).
She would go on to win the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) prior to embarking on a successful two-start Queensland Winter Carnival campaign in which she took out the BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m), defeating Taking Aim (Choisir) and subsequent Group 1-winning sprinter Pierata (Pierro).
The experienced Autridge, who has more than 1,000 winners to his credit of which nearly 100 are at stakes level, recalled: “The only time she disappointed us was her lead-up run to her Karaka Million win.
“We had to give her a run at Ellerslie (two weeks earlier), she drew badly and got a bump and she ran nearly last (eighth of ten). We were a bit concerned, but we brushed it off and said, ‘she’ll be right’, and we were.
“That night in the Karaka Million we got the gun run from the gun jockey (Opie Bosson) and now it’s history what she’s gone on to achieve.”
Autridge, now training in partnership with Kris Shailer at Matamata, has marvelled at Melody Belle’s racetrack feats season after season.
The rising seven-year-old mare’s win the Bonecrusher Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at Ellerslie was her 14th at the highest level and the victory also saw her surpass fellow champion New Zealand mare Sunline (Desert Sun) for her number of Group 1 successes.
“Nine times out of ten, a horse who shows you something would go sore, train off or whatever but she never did,” he said.
“She was a very rare mare to have. It was just so good to see so many of her owners enjoy the ride. There’s quite a few of them and they loved every day of it.”
The Fortuna Thoroughbreds syndicate, who own the mare, has entrusted Julian Blaxland’s Blue Sky Premium Consignment with selling Melody Belle who ended her 41-start racing career when running on from last to finish fifth in Saturday’s Doomben Cup (Gr 1, 2000m).
“She’s the best performed mare to go to auction probably anywhere in the world from a Group 1 point of view and I am just really excited for Tuesday,” Blaxland said yesterday.
“There’s 34 owners in this mare and it’s the end of a long and very exciting journey for all of those owners and, of course, Jamie Richards.
“Jamie’s obviously a very accomplished trainer now, but this mare really put him on the map and she’s just a wonderful mare.
“It’s the last chapter for them and the beginning of a new chapter with the start of her breeding career.”
Melody Belle is out of Meleka Belle (Iffraaj) who is a half-sister to four stakes-placed horses including the Group 1-placed filly Tsarina Belle (Stravinsky).
“I’ve been lucky, especially in the past few years, to spend time around some top horses and they certainly have something about them,” Blaxland said.
“They have a presence and Melody Belle knows she’s good. She is very athletic. You can see that she’s got an enormous overstep, a beautiful head on her.
“Athleticism is the first thing that comes to mind when you look at her and I think she should appeal to all big breeders and operations.
“From a pedigree and performance point of view, she wouldn’t be out of place in any broodmare band anywhere in the world and if she can throw a type like herself, you’re going to get an athletic racehorse out of her.”
With Melody Belle sure to capture international attention from buyers, Blaxland was keeping an open mind on what price the Commands (Danehill) mare could make tomorrow.
“I think if you compare her to the Sunlights and those types of mares and the Unforgottens of last year, she’s certainly in the $2.5-$4.5 million bracket,” he said.
“The market is very strong and these big breeding operations want mares like her. She’s a collector’s item. She represents an enormous opportunity for any stud that wants one of the best mares in the world in their broodmare band.”
Melody Belle, catalogued as Lot 510, will be the seventh horse to go through the ring at the Gold Coast tomorrow. The sale starts at 10am.
Adelaide connections lose star mare Li’l Kontra
Talented Adelaide sprinter Li’l Kontra (Krupt), who was trained by Ryan Balfour, sadly died en route to the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale where she was to be sold.
The rising five-year-old mare was found dead in her box after the transport company taking her from Adelaide to Sydney had stopped in country NSW on Friday night to break-up the long trip.
The discovery was made early on Saturday morning by the driver.
Li’l Kontra was a dual stakes-winning juvenile who ran fourth in the 2019 Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) behind colts Exceedance (Exceed And Excel), Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) and filly Libertini (I Am Invincible).
She was to be offered through the Blue Sky Premium Consignment draft.
“It’s devastating for Ryan Balfour and his owners with Li’l Kontra. She was halfway to Queensland and unfortunately passed away while in a transit stop overnight,” Blue Sky’s Julian Blaxland said.
“It’s very sad for them. We were really looking forward to selling her on their behalf, but sometimes these things happen with horses.
“We send our thoughts to her owners and also to Ryan.”
Noted for her consistency, Li’l Kontra won five of her 29 starts including in April when scoring at Caulfield. Li’l Kontra was a sister to the former Balfour-trained Group 2-placed sprinter Cashed.
Balfour, with the assistance of agent Dave Mee of Pinhook Bloodstock, paid $110,000 for Li’l Kontra at the 2018 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale. She won $574,935 in prize-money.
Her dam Li’l Cashy (Keltrice), who was trained by Balfour’s late father David, has a yearling filly by Toronado (High Chaparral).