Bellatrix Star (Star Witness) was among the leading two-year-old fillies in New Zealand last season, and she showed in Saturday’s A$175,000 Listed Cap D’Antibes Stakes (1100m) at Flemington that she has the class to compete on Melbourne’s spring carnival stage.
The Cap D’Antibes Stakes was only the second Victorian start for Bellatrix Star, who had kicked off with a late-finishing fifth in the Gr.3 Quezette Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield on August 17. As a two-year-old, she won on debut at Wanganui and later added the Gr.2 Eclipse Stakes (1200m) at Pukekohe on New Year’s Day. The Star Witness filly also finished second in the Listed Counties Challenge Stakes (1100m) and fourth in the Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m).
“It’s good to see her frank her form with this win today,” trainer Mark Walker said. “She was one of our better two-year-olds in New Zealand last season, and it is encouraging to see that they can measure up in Australia.”
Expat Kiwi jockey Michael Dee rode a patient race on Bellatrix Star on Saturday and settled her in fourth-last among a talented field of 13. Bellatrix Star appeared to be travelling well coming into the final 300m, and when Dee pushed the button, she quickened smartly to sprint past Bold Bastille (Brazen Beau) and win by a length and a quarter.
“It unfolded perfectly for us,” Dee said. “She’s a horse that naturally gets back anyway. She does have a short sprint, so I was quite happy when the field spread apart in front of me. We were able to work up just behind the leaders doing no work.
“Her sprint was great, and the other asset to her is she loves a wet track, so we were quietly confident that she’d be fit enough and comfortable on that surface today. She’s proven that to be right.”
Walker identified the Gr.3 Scarborough Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on September 27 as Bellatrix Star’s likely next target.
“We took her to Moonee Valley one morning to give her a look around that track with the Scarbrough Stakes in mind,” he said.
Raced by John Galvin’s Fortuna Racing, Bellatrix Star has now earned A$310,757 from a seven-start career that has produced three wins and two placings.
Bellatrix Star was offered by Phoenix Park in Book 1 of Karaka 2023, where she was bought for $80,000 by Fortuna Racing in partnership with Te Akau Racing principal David Ellis. –