Canterbury Belle stable confident of victory

Press, 2 November 1984, Page 35

Canterbury Belle stable confident of victory

By

J. J. BOYLE

Canterbury Belle will give some thoroughbred | students in far-flung places something to wonder about if, as expected, she wins the $lOO,OOO Wrightson One Thousand Guineas, at Riccarton tomorrow.

She is the brilliant product of a mare sired by a teaser stallion at an English stud. Canterbury Belle’s undistinguished maternal grandsire was Sea Artist (son of Niccolo dell’Arca), and her grandam was Peruke, which was thought to have her productive years behind her until she conceived from a demonstration mating. The product of that mating was Callao Queen,

which was bought cheaply by Nick Wigley for his Inglewood Stud in Canterbury. Callao Queen won two small races in the Wigley colours, and became an immediate success as a producer by leaving Kiwi Pride, winner of over $lOO,OOO in Australia. Canterbury Belle, Callao Queen’s fourth foal, has also given every indication that she will make a quick entry into the six-figure club with her three wins from as many starts so far. She might be short on racing experience, as compared with several others in the lineup against her tomorrow, but she carries the unbounded confidence of her Riccarton trainer, Dave

Kerr, for her stiffest test yet.

Kerr has shown he has a golden touch with three-year-olds in winning the last two Two Thousand Guineas contests with Clansman and Gaffa. And from his experience with those two talented gallopers, both since sold to the United States, he is in the best possible position to draw comparisons. All those comparisons come down favourably on the side of the filly, so it appears that there will need to be at least one unusually gifted performer elsewhere in the field if Canterbury Belle’s sequence is to be ended tomorrow.

The search for excellence in the lineup against Canter-

bury Belle will, for many, be largely restricted to the North islanders, Avana, Jayel’s Pride, and Princess Regal. But southerners tell of an emerging star in Palamon, now winner of her only two races so far, the most recent of them the Gore Guineas.

Avana, from Cambridge, and Jayell’s Pride, from Te Awamutu, turned the Wellington Racing Club’s Desert Gold Stakes into a memorable contest with their sustained battle to the end of the 1600 m. There was only a short head in it favouring Avana, but Jayell’s Pride appeared to pay a heavy price for her tendency to shift ground when applying heavy pressure on the

Avaray filly near the end. Princess Regal has much going for her on breeding. Her sire is Vice Regal, one of the best three-year-olds of his time, and her dam is Pure Luck, one of the top two-year-old fillies of her year, and a close relation of the high-class sprinter-miler Otematata and of the Waikato Guineas winner, El Casino.

Princess Regal won her first race at Riccarton a year ago. Her three-year-old spring programme has been notable for her win under difficulties in a feature sprint race at Rotorua and a strongly-finishing second over 1400 m in a field of well-regarded three-year-olds at Te Rapa last week.