Astute trainer Danny O’Brien must love his fillies by the late So You Think given he now has a trio of his three year-old daughters in the stable that are all stakes-winners with Gold Coast Belle taking out the $200,000 Listed Bendigo Guineas (1400m) on Saturday.
O’Brien has already enjoyed Group wins this season with Getta Good Feeling and Sass Appeal with Gold Coast Belle joining the club after scoring a half length win for Jordan Childs as favourite.
Gold Coast Belle was seeking her third successive win, but was made to work for it after travelling three wide and clocking a brisk 1:21.52 seconds for the trip.
The victory took her overall record to an impressive four wins and two seconds from just six starts with prizemoney in excess of $260,000.
“There are a lot of classy fillies turning into four-year-olds mares in the spring such as our fillies Getta Good Feeling and Sass Appeal and then there’s Sheza Albi and Charlotte’s (Littlefield) horse (Concord Connie) looks a real type and then you go to open grade and there is Autumn Boy,” said trainer Danny O’Brien’s stable foreman Jack Howard.
“We’ve got a really good group, and I suppose that will pose a few problems for us next season when they all become four-year-old mares and we have to split them up.”
A $375,000 Magic Millions purchase from the Coolmore draft for John Wheeler, Gold Coast Belle was foaled and raised at Coolmore and is the best of three winners from three to race from Perpetuum, an unraced half-sister by More Than Ready (USA) to Group III winner Maschino and stakes-winner Kentucky Breeze from Group III winner Tahni Girl.
“She was there to be beaten and it’s great to get the black type for (owner) John Wheeler,” Howard said.
“We have toyed with the idea of getting out a bit further and she could get to a mile, but she has the brilliance, so we don’t have to get there.
“Queensland is a potential, but we’ve spaced it for her up to now. She’s got the black type, so we don’t have to chase it. The other option is to keep her here, give her a break and look to the spring as a four-year-old.
“She is a So You Think and then tend to improve when they turn four so that might be the ace up our sleeve with her.”
Gold Coast Belle is the 70th stakes-winner for much missed So You Think, whose final crop of foals will be born this spring.
