Belardo Boy (NZ) Starts New Season on a High for NZB

New Zealand Bloodstock has made a flying start to the new racing season, with Belardo Boy (NZ) (Belardo) heading a Karaka quinella in the first black-type feature of 2023-24 – the $110,000 Group Three Winning Edge Presentations 126th Winter Cup (1600m) at Riccarton on Saturday.

Bought for just $28,000 by trainer Lisa Latta from Haunui Farm’s Book 2 draft at Karaka 2020, the Winter Cup hero has now earned more than $202,000 in stakes from a 28-start career that has produced seven wins and five placings. Runner-up Cork (NZ) (Complacent), meanwhile, was a $30,000 purchase from Karaka 2019 and has banked over $101,000.

Belardo Boy had sounded a warning to his Winter Cup rivals with a dominant victory at Awapuni on June 17, but he was a luckless seventh in his final lead-up run in the Listed Opunake Cup (1400m) on July 22. The five-year-old turned things around in style in the one that counted, producing an irresistible finish in the hands of Irish jockey Joe Doyle.

Drawn in gate three among a capacity field of 18, Belardo Boy took up a comfortable position in eighth along the inside. Doyle had him travelling beautifully a long way from home, and he began to move away from the rail and improve his position approaching the home turn.

Belardo Boy still had half the field ahead of him with less than 400 metres remaining, but he began to lengthen stride out wide on the track and roll home over the top of his opposition. He swept powerfully to the lead inside the final 100 metres and won by three-quarters of a length, with Cork edging out four others in a blanket finish to take the runner-up spot.

“That’s just fantastic, and I’m very grateful to Lisa and her team,” Doyle said. “The horse has done it very well, and I’m grateful to able to ride a horse like this in a big race.

“The race went close to plan. I said I’d pop out and throw the reins at him before following the Sharrock horse (Justaskme (NZ) (No Excuse Needed)) into the race, and if he’s good enough, then he will be good enough. It worked out perfectly and I think he could be a pretty good horse.”

For Latta, Saturday’s win brought a long-range plan to enormously satisfying fruition.

“It’s the first Group race of the season and a race you like to target,” Lata said. “We’ve had it in mind for this horse since he came back into work. If you watch his last run, he was very unlucky after a super win before that.

“Craig McNeill runs the syndicate who own him and has been with me a very long time, so this means a hell of a lot to me.”

Latta trained Belardo Boy’s dam L’Amour (NZ) (Towkay) through a 48-start career that featured seven victories along with a placing in the Group Three Desert Gold Stakes (1600m).

Latta has had great success buying the mare’s progeny at Karaka, with Belardo Boy following in the footsteps of his full-sister Cheveux (NZ) (Belardo), who placed in last year’s Listed Champagne Stakes (1200m) at Riccarton. Latta bought Cheveux for $40,000 from Karaka 2021.

Vendor	Haunui Farm
Purchaser	Lisa Latta Racing (Manawatu-Whanganui)
Breeding	Belardo – L’Amour
Sale	Lot 705, Karaka 2020 Book 2, $28,000
Bred by	J E Fokerd & Haunui Farm LP