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Outstanding Commands mare Melody Belle continued her amazing spring with another Group 1 win in Saturday’s Windsor Park Plate at Hastings to cap a super day for her connections.
Earlier her stablemate Avantage won the G3 Gold Trail Stakes. The pair are trained by Jamie Richards for Te Akau and Fortuna syndicates and both are the last two winners of the Karaka Million at Ellerslie.
Bought by Te Akau’s David Ellis for just $57,500 at the 2016 NZB Premier Sale at Karaka, Melody Belle has now won eight of her 15 starts for the Fortuna Melody Belle Syndicate. She has earned over $1.2 million in prize-money – more than 21 times her purchase price.Melody Belle followed her Karaka Million heroics in 2017 with a G1 win in the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes and a G2 win in Brisbane.
She was below her best as a three-year-old, but this spring she has risen to new heights, winning the G2 Foxbridge Plate in August followed by the Hawke’s Bay spring carnival G1 double in the Tarzino Trophy and Windsor Park Plate.No New Zealand-trained horse won more than one G1 race during the 2017-18 season but Melody Belle has won the first two New Zealand majors of 2018-19.
The 4YO Melody Belle (Commands x Meleka Belle by Iffraaj) is the only foal to race out of the winning mare Meleka Belle, who is a half-sister to the stakes-placed Desert Rain (Honor Grades), Tsarina Belle (Stravinsky), Housemaster (Housebuster) and Kiwinksy (Stravinsky).David Ellis purchased her now two-year-old half-sister by Not A Single Doubt for $900,000 at this year’s New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale.
Meleka Belle has a yearling filly by Tavistock and is due to foal to that stallion this year before returning to Not A Single Doubt.Melody Belle is one of 11 G1 winners for her late sire Commands, the Danehill stallion whose G1-winning sons Epaulette, Holler and Skilled are now at stud.