They don’t come any more honest than the 5yo Bel Esprit mare
Je Suis Belle, who made a winning stakes debut in Saturday’s Listed Tab Ascot Quality Hcp (1000m) at Eagle Farm.
Ridden by Taylor Marshall for Toowoomba trainer Mark Currie, Je Suis Belle rocketed home to defeat the favourite Shooting For Gold (Shooting to Win) by a length and a quarter with a further one and a half lengths back to topweight Zoustyle (Zoustar).
Je Suis Belle advances her record to eight wins, five seconds, and three thirds from 17 starts with earnings of $330,900.
“You don’t want to hear what I was saying mid-race, she was back that far,” Currie told Racenet.
“I thought she might run fifth if she ran straight down the running and then the last 150m she got going.
“I thought she was a bit underdone because she has had a few setbacks since she last run, I didn’t expect that.
“It is a big step up for her, but it will be really good in the breeding barn,” he smiled. “She has won a fair few here, she loves the track, so it was all good.”
An $80,000 purchase for Ben Currie Racing / Cameron Cooke Bloodstock from the Gainsborough Lodge draft at the 2018 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, Je Suis Belle is the lone winner from three to race from the winning Lonhro mare Licorice Stick.
A three-quarter sister to dual Group III winner Raspberries, Licorice Stick, is out of the Rubiton mare Lick, is a sister to the Ingham family’s grand old warrior Flavour, whose 14 wins included the Group 1 VRC Salinger Stakes.
Lick’s half-sister Parfaits is the dam of Group 1 Queensland Derby winner Sonntag (Teofilo).
Newhaven Park Stud hit it out of the park with Licorice Stick’s fifth foal, a filly by Pariah, who was knocked down to Annabel Neasham Racing / B McGuire / Best Bloodstock for $220,000 at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.
Licorice Stick has a weanling colt by Dubious and revisited Aquis Farm’s son of not A Single Doubt last spring.
Je Suis Belle becomes the 28th stakes-winner for Widden Stud’s veteran Bel Esprit.
