Hitabell (NZ) All Heart in Eight Carat Classic

Low-priced National Online Yearling Sale purchase Hitabell (NZ) (Embellish) confirmed her place among the classiest and most determined fillies of her generation in Boxing Day’s $270,000 Group Two Hallmark Stud Eight Carat Classic (1600m) at Ellerslie – the fifth leg of the NZB Filly of the Year Series.

The Eight Carat was the third win from only a five-start career for Hitabell, who has banked $217,110 in prize-money. That dwarfs her $9,500 purchase price from Henley Park’s consignment in the 2023 National Online Yearling Sale on Gavelhouse Plus.

Hitabell’s Boxing Day heroics also earned her 8 points in the NZB Filly of the Year Series, slotting straight into third place behind Alabama Lass (Alabama Express) and Captured By Love (Written Tycoon).

Leica Lucy (NZ) (Derryn) holds fourth place with 6 points, followed by Kitty Flash (NZ) (Ace High) and Eight Carat Classic runner-up Sethito (NZ) (Super Seth) on 4 each. Movin’ Out (NZ) (Staphanos) has 3.5 points, which puts her just ahead of Love Poem (Snitzel) and Eight Carat third placegetter Real Class (NZ) (Vadamos) on 2 apiece. Damask Rose (NZ) (Savabeel) and Skymax (NZ) (Ferrando) complete the table with 1.5 points each.

Hitabell showed brilliant speed with an all-the-way win on debut over 1100 metres at Taupo in early October, then was thrown in at the deep end to contest the Group Two Soliloquy Stakes (1400m) at Ellerslie in the second start of her career. She defied 60-to-one odds for a close fifth, only 2.1 lengths from the winner Alabama Lass.

After a luckless seventh at Ellerslie in early November, the Stephen Marsh-trained Hitabell got back in the winning groove with a commanding front-running performance in the Listed O’Learys Fillies’ Stakes (1340m) at Wanganui.

The Eight Carat Classic was a step up in class and distance, and without the benefit of a track that appeared to favour front-runners at Wanganui. None of those factors made any difference.

Jockey Courtney Barnes drove Hitabell straight to the front and stayed there, kicking hard at the corner and throwing down a fierce challenge to her opposition.

Hot favourite Sethito moved up alongside her and appeared to have the upper hand, but Sethito lifted again. After a head-bobbing duel through the final few strides, Hitabell clung on tenaciously to win by half a head.

“It was a very good win and she was just so brave,” Barnes said. “We wanted to be positive from the barrier and when she jumped so well, she put herself on the pace and we could control things from there.

“I was a little worried when the other one cruised up alongside us, but I could feel her building underneath me and she just wouldn’t give in.

“That is the furthest she has gone, but the way she relaxes, there is nothing to say she couldn’t get a little further than the mile.”

Last-start Group Three Bonecrusher Stakes (1400m) winner Sethito lost little in her narrow defeat following a tough wide trip, while the third-placed Real Class improved on the Eight Carat performances of two of her relatives. Her dam Mill Duckie finished fifth in the race in 2008, while this filly’s full-sister Shez Class also ran fifth in the Eight Carat in 2022.

Hitabell became the first Group Two winner for young Cambridge Stud stallion Embellish (NZ), who is also the sire of the Group Three winners Luberon (NZ) and Bold Soul (NZ). Embellish will feature at Karaka 2025 with 12 yearlings in Book 2.

Meanwhile, the NZB Filly of the Year Series will continue at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day with the running of the $270,000 Group Two Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes (2000m). Like the Eight Carat, that race is worth 8 points for the winner, 4 for second and 2 for third.

Vendor	Henley Park
Purchaser	Stephen Marsh Racing/Dylan Johnson Bloodstock (Waikato)
Breeding	Embellish – Anahita
Sale	Lot 2, 2023 National Online Yearling Sale, $9,500
Bred by	Mrs S L Devcich