Nick Bishara was left pinching himself on Saturday after he watched his filly Belle Detelle breakthrough for her maiden stakes victory in the Gr.3 Adrian Knox Stakes (2000m) at Randwick.
The Ardmore horseman looks to have struck gold for the second time, with Belle Detelle being a three-quarter sister to his ill-fated champion racemare Verry Elleegant, who recorded 11 Group One victories.
Like Verry Elleegant, Belle Detelle is trained by leading Sydney trainer Chris Waller, and has now accrued an envious record of two wins and three placings from five starts and earned more than A$190,000 in prizemoney.
“It was terrific. I am just trying to sit back and take it all in,” said Bishara, who co-bred and part-owns Belle Detelle.
“She’s not Verry Elleegant, but for Lightning to strike twice and to have a stakes winner out of the family is great. To get a Group Three at your fifth start is pretty impressive.”
The victory was a full-circle moment for Bishara, who has been involved with the family for nearly two decades.
He initially bought Belle Detelle’s granddam Opulence for $5,000 at New Zealand Bloodstock’s Autumn Mixed Bloodstock Sale and trained her to win two races, and subsequently offered her in-foal to Towkay at Karaka in 2011 where she was purchased by the late Don Goodwin for $14,000.
Goodwin in turn returned to Karaka the following year with the resulting foal, who Bishara purchased for $2,000 and would go on to name her Black Lace. She posted three victories for Bishara before retiring to the broodmare paddock, with her first foal being Belle Detelle.
“Matt Duffie and I raced her (Black Lace) mother Opulence, which ended up being Verry Elleegant’s mother,” Goodwin said. “We put her in-foal to Towkay and put the mare through the ring (where she was bought by Don Goodwin). Don presented Black Lace at the weanling sales and looking back we thought we didn’t want to get out of this family, so we bought her back quite cheaply for $2,000.
“We kept her, raced her, and sent her to stud at the end of her five-year-old season. Luckily we had Verry Elleegant and we decided to send her to Zed. She missed the first time and connected the second (resulting in Belle Detelle).
“We wanted a filly, the family is very light on fillies, and we don’t intend on selling her anytime soon.”
Black Lace is currently domiciled at Arrowfield Stud in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, where she has been since a partnership with the leading stud farm was formed a couple of years ago.
“Brian de Lore is good friends with my late father, and he put us into contact with John Messara from Arrowfield, and he was very interested in doing a foal share with Black Lace,” Bishara said.
“We took the punt and that’s why Belle Detelle doesn’t have a New Zealand suffix next to her name, she was foaled down at Arrowfield. We have got a couple of Dundeels in partnership with Arrowfield to look forward to.
“We have a two-year-old Dundeel gelding with Arrowfield and he will probably go to Chris (Waller).
“We have also got a weanling colt by Dundeel out of Black Lace to go to next year’s Sydney Easter Sale. It’s exciting times.”
Black Lace missed to Admire Mars this season and Bishara said a decision on her next mating will be made in the near future.
“Unfortunately, she is empty and we are hoping for an early service,” Bishara said. “We will sit down with John and the crew and decide where we go. He has got a new stallion (Vandeek) on the roster out of Europe, or we go back to Dundeel or Admire Mars, and I may even be cheeky and ask if there is a Snitzel nomination open.”
Bishara is excited about what the future holds for Belle Detelle, who he said has an uncanny similarity to her star relation Verry Elleegant.
“It is kind of scary,” he said. “You look at her mannerisms and her head carriage and her awkwardness, she is the spitting image of Verry Elleegant.
“It’s really exciting and we have got so much more to look forward to.”
While she shows many similarities to Verry Elleegant, one feat she won’t replicate is a Gr.1 Australian Oaks (2400m) victory, with her trainer Chris Waller electing to bypass Saturday’s contest.
“His (Chris Waller) immediate thoughts are that she won’t back-up this week in the Oaks,” Bishara said. “She is still quite a leggy, lightly-framed filly.
“We will more than likely go to the paddock for a week and set her for a Queensland Oaks (Gr.1, 2200m). There is an outside chance that she could go to Adelaide (for the Gr.1 Australasian Oaks, 2000m), which would probably mean she wouldn’t get a week in the paddock.”
Bishara can’t believe his luck that that he has his hands on another quality filly, and the feat isn’t lost on the humble horseman.
“I am super blessed,” Bishara said. “You dream of having a Verry Elleegant and then you look back and say ‘I have had my go, it is a career highlight, and you can take it to your grave’ and then this filly comes along and it’s almost a repeat story of Verry Elleegant.
“I am not saying she will crack the heights of Verry Elleegant, but she has done more than enough already, but I do think there is the promise of a lot more to come.
“How lucky I am to have Verry Elleegant and now Belle Detelle?” – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
