MELODY BELLE SOLD FOR $2.6 MILLION AFTER AN EXCEPTIONAL RACING CAREER BY ANY STANDARDS

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, May 25, 2021

The much-anticipated appearance of Melody Belle in the Magic Millions sales ring on Tuesday morning certainly lived up to the hype as the exceptionally well-performed mare achieved a price of $2.6 million

Melody Belle became the most successful Group 1 racehorse in New Zealand racing history with her win in the Bonecrusher in March when she took her Group 1 total to 14, surpassing the record previously held by the great Sunline.

As a two-year-old, the daughter of Commands won the Karaka Millions, the Group 1 Sires Produce (at Awapuni) and the Group 2 Sires Produce (at Eagle Farm).

As a three-year-old she won the Group 3 Mongolian Khan.

As a four-year-old Melody Belle won the Group 2 Foxbridge Plate, the Group 1 Tazrino Trophy and the Group 1 Windsor Park in a magnificent three race, one month blitz from August 18. 2018 to September 22, 2018.

Five months later, amazingly, Melody Belle exceeded that previous effort, again winning three races in a month (this time from February 9 to March 9), but this time they were ALL Group 1 victories in the BDC Sprint, the Haunui Stakes and the NZ Stakes.

You would have thought that sort of achievement would be hard to surpass, but Melody Belle did just that.

As a five-year-old, Melody Belle won four Group 1’s in a row!

She got her second Tarzino Trophy and her second Windsor Park and added a Livamol and an Empire Rose to her honour roll, in the process becoming the first, and still only horse to win the New Zealand Triple Crown.

And she wasn’t finished yet!

As a six-year-old she again made it back-to-back Group 1 when taking out her third Windsor Park and her second Livamol before winning the Group 1 Thorndon Mile in January 2021 … a result which took her alongside Sunline’s total of 13 Group 1 wins.

On March 13, 2021 she marked the defining achievement of her career when she won the Group 1 Bonecrusher to become New Zealand’s greatest Group 1 winning performer.

From October 2016 until August 2019, Melody Belle was trained by the Stephen Autridge, Jamie Richards training partnership before Richards took over the training role in his own right.

This was an exceptional career by any standards.

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