Charlotte Littlefield and Mark Zahra have combined with the talented She’s Bulletproof to take out the Group 3 Geoffrey Bellmaine Stakes at Sandown on Saturday afternoon, as the four-year-old mare stormed clear in the final 300m to record a dominant 2.75-length win.
The daughter of Shooting To Win was well-backed throughout betting, fighting for favouritism with Miraval Rose (+320) with Picklebet, eventually jumping as the +300 market elect.
Zahra chose to ride the eventual winner as the best horse in the race, settling outside the leaders, Fancify (+600) and Wrote To Arataki (+1800), but three-wide without cover for the entire 1200m trip.
With her main market rival, Miraval Rose, settled behind the leaders and slightly held up turning for home, Zahra pushed the button, and She’s Bulletproof took over with 300m to go.
Nothing made up significant ground from back in the field, and She’s Bulletproof continued to pull away from the rest of the field while Fancify and Wrote To Arataki boxed on gamely to fill the placings.
Charlotte Littlefield claimed her first Group victory of her training career, and she spoke to the media after the win.
“You can probably see my heart pumping through my chest at the moment because it’s a lot to take in,” Littlefield said.
“This horse is very special to us, with a very close group of friends and family, so it’s just really rewarding to get this horse to win this race today.
“It means so much. It hasn’t sunk in yet, and it will be a little while until it does.
“We’ve changed a few things around to get her to peak today, and look, it’s all come to fruition today, and she hasn’t just won; she won very well.
“I’m so proud of her, so proud of my team. It’s brilliant, and I’m very happy.
“We’ll just keep her ticking along, and we will pick something out in four weeks.
“I’m not sure what it is, but off that, you would think she will be going pretty well again.”
Mark Zahra brought up a riding double at Sandown with the win, and he spoke post-race.
“She won very easily,” Zahra said of the winner.
“Charlotte (Littlefield) sort of left it to me, and we drew a wide gate, so I said, ‘We could be three-wide, but that’s no problem on Lakeside,’ so I sat three-wide the majority of it.
“When we came into the straight and Fancify kicked, when I asked her, she just rocketed and I had it won at the 300 (metres) pretty much.
“I definitely think she likes being outside horses… coming around the bend I actually pulled in behind Wrote To Arataki and she backed off, and when I pulled her right out she really found.”
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