News

Belter of a day for Dane Belltar

6th Oct 2012

Group 3 winning mare Dane Belltar recorded an amazing feat in Australia on Saturday, with three of her foals winning on metropolitan tracks; Tanby and Fawkner at Flemington and Viking Star at Morphettville.

Viking Star ($120,000 2011 Easter, 3g Red Ransom-Dane Belltar) got the extraordinary day underway with victory in Race 1 at Morphettville, the SAJC Centrebet Handicap over 1300m for three-year-olds.

The win was Viking Star’s third victory from just five starts for trainer Leon Macdonald, who had trained Dane Belltar to a second placing in the 2003 Group 1 VRC Oaks and victory in the 2004 Group 3 SAJC Auraria Stakes.

Macdonald purchased Dane Belltar’s fourth foal for $120,000 at the 2011 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale from the draft of Mill Park of Meningie, South Australia. Going on the form of his siblings today Viking Star might be expected to keep improving with age.

Next up for Dane Belltar was her first foal, Tanby (pictured), in the Listed VRC The Bart Cummings over 2520m at Flemington.

Owned by Lloyd and Nick Williams the six-year-old by Galileo put himself in the mix for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups with a strong win in the staying contest.

Tanby ($200,000 2008 Easter, 6g Galileo-Dane Belltar) has always been highly touted by Team Williams and the improving stayer put his best foot forward to defeat fellow Cups bound galloper Mayluckyday by a length, with Dame Claire back in third.

“We’ve always had a big opinion of this horse coming through the grades,” Nick Williams said.

“I think it was a pretty soft win in the end and I’d be surprised if Ollie wasn’t impressed by him as he didn’t have the best run in transit but he put pay to them very easily.

“It [his next start] will be either the Caulfield Cup or the Moonee Valley Cup, we’ll just have to see how he pulls up,” Williams indicated.

Also bred by Dane Belltar’s owner Steve Bennetts, Tanby was sold from Mill Park’s draft to Nick Williams for $200,000 at the 2008 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

Tanby has won eight and placed another six times from 21 starts for career earnings of $430,355.

Completing the day’s outstanding feat was another Team Williams galloper in Fawkner, who duly saluted in the last race on the Flemington card, the Listed VRC Headquarters Tavern Stakes over 1410m.

“It [1400m today] was perfect, he was probably in badly at the weights, got the outside gate and sat three wide without cover, so I think there is a lot of merit to the win,” Nick Williams told TVN.

“I think he’s really going ahead in leaps and bounds and there’s a few big Mile races for him in the near little while that we’ll have to have a serious think about,” William advised.

Fawkner ($70,000 2009 Premier, 5g Reset-Dane Belltar) is the second foal of his dam and was picked up by Team Williams from the 2009 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale again from the draft of Mill Park.

The five-year-old son of Reset has notched up $350,000 for his connections thanks to seven wins and three placings from 13 career starts.

The amazing achievement of Dane Belltar to produce three high class gallopers from her first four foals and for them all to win on the same day in quality races was not lost one of her biggest fans, Nick Williams.

“It’s extraordinary isn’t it. She [Dane Belltar] is obviously a super mare. Leon [Macdonald] must have done a good job training her,” Williams said after Fawkner returned to scale.

After producing four colts from 2006 to 2009 Dane Belltar missed in 2010 then slipped her foal in 2011. But the daughter of Danewin did produce a grey filly on 31 August this year by Starcraft.