Bellatrix Star Makes Her Mark in Melbourne

Already a proven performer in New Zealand as a two-year-old last season, Bellatrix Star (Star Witness) snared valuable black type in Australia on Saturday with an impressive come-from-behind victory in the A$175,000 Listed Cap D’Antibes Stakes (1100m) at Flemington.

Bellatrix Star was offered by Phoenix Park in Book 1 of Karaka 2023, where David Ellis and Fortuna Racing bought her for $80,000. She has now had seven starts for three wins, two placings and A$310,757 in stakes.

Trained by Te Akau Racing’s Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson, Bellatrix Star kicked off her career with a smart win in the season-opening juvenile race at Wanganui in September of last year. She later went on to capture the Group Two Eclipse Stakes (1200m) at Pukekohe, beating subsequent Group One winners Move To Strike (I Am Invincible) and Velocious (Written Tycoon). In her only start after that win, she ran a creditable fourth in the $1m TAB Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m).

Te Akau and Fortuna saw more than enough in those performances to test Bellatrix Star against some of Australia’s finest fillies this spring, and she made a promising start with a strong-finishing fifth in the Group Three Quezette Stakes (1100m) in her first-up run at Caulfield last month. What she did at Flemington on Saturday was even better.

In the hands of expat New Zealand jockey Michael Dee, Bellatrix Star showed a brilliant turn of foot to burst out of the pack and charge past Bold Bastille (Brazen Beau) for a convincing victory 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.”

It was a highly satisfying result for Walker, who will now point Bellatrix Star towards the A$200,000 Group Three Scarborough Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on September 27.

“It’s good to see her frank her form with this win today,” 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.

“We took her to Moonee Valley one morning recently to give her a look around that track with the Scarborough Stakes in mind.”