Pride of Dubai has two absolutely outstanding mares running for him this season and while Pride of Jenni has been off on a well earned break preparing for the spring, Bella Nipotina has been blazing a path to further G1 glory over the Brisbane Winter Carnival adding the $700,000 Group I Tatts Tiara (1400m) to her stellar CV at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
The Ciaron Maher trained six year-old won the Group I BRC Doomben 10000 at her first start in Brisbane and followed with two close seconds in the G1 Stradbroke and Kingsford Smith Cup before rounding out her campaign with a dominant win in the Tiara beating her stablemate Semana by more than a length.
With her regular rider Craig Williams off on an aid mission to Ukraine, Ryan Maloney filled the role admirably allowing her to find her rhythm albeit travelling deep from her wide gate before she went into overdrive and showed her class.
“In the end it really didn't matter, she just toyed with them," Maloney said.
"She got into a nice enough rhythm and good horses do what they do, they just know how to win. It certainly makes your job a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable."
"To do what she has done, I thought we'd come up here for one run and maybe have a crack at 14 (1400 metres) in the Tiara," said Ciaron Maher, who continues to be amazed by what Bella can achieve.
"To run in all four and be as good in the last as she was in the first, phenomenal.
"And that's on the back of going to Perth, running in the autumn in Sydney."
Maher harbours a plan to get Bella Nipotina ready for the Everest, a race in which she missed a start last year before winning the $3million Giga Kick beating both Private Eye and Everest winner Think About It.
“She was an emergency last year, she is probably going better this year," Maher said.
"We will work back from The Everest, she probably has a run beforehand, and she will go back out now and freshen up."
An $80,000 Inglis Premier purchase for Lindsay Park Racing / Andrew Williams Bloodstock / Mt Hallowell Stud from the Rosemont stud draft, Bella Nipotina was bred by Michael Christian and partners at Longwood Thoroughbred Farm and they retain a share in her ownership.
Now a triple Group I winner, Bella Nipotina has the impressive record of nine wins and 23 placings from 52 starts with earnings topping $10.9million.
Bella Nipotina is the best of two winners from Bella Orfana, a placed sibling by Star Witness to Group winners Hallowell Belle and Fuddle Dee Duddle (dam of Group III winner Brereton) from the family of Group I Caulfield Guineas winner In Top Swing.
Longwood Thoroughbred Farm sadly lost Bella Orfana earlier this year and her last foal is a weanling filly by Trapeze Artist.
Standing at Coolmore at a fee of $22,000, Pride of Dubai has sired three Group I winners this season with Bella Nipotina joining Pride of Jenni and New Zealand trained Desert Lightning.
He will finish a clear third on the Australian General Sires List behind only I Am Invincible and Zoustar.
