The four-time Group winner and G1 placed filly Bellatrix Star (Star Witness) will be offered for public auction as part of the Inglis Digital September (Early) Online Sale.
The Mark Walker-trained mare is one of the best performed race filles or mares to come out of New Zealand in the past decade, showing high-class form on both sides of the Tasman.
In a supreme demonstration of her precocity, Bellatrix Star debuted with a strong victory at Wanganui in the first 2YO race of the Australasian season on September 2.
For context, that win came almost three weeks prior to her actual second birthday, on September 19.
She went on to win the G2 Eclipse Stakes – defeating the likes of future G1 winners Move To Strike and Velocious – on January 1, before things didn’t go to plan in the $1m Karaka 2YO Million where she finished 4th.
It was as a spring 3YO that Bellatrix Star flourished.
Campaigning exclusively in Melbourne, she won the Listed Cap d’Antibes at Flemington, the G3 Scarborough Stakes at Moonee Valley and the G2 Schillaci Stakes at Caulfield before running 2nd to Switzerland in the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes.
In that spring preparation alone Bellatrix Star defeated the likes of Lady of Camelot, Geegees Mistruth, Benagil, Another Prophet, Mornington Glory, Growing Empire, I Am Unstoppable, Coleman, Traffic Warden, Oscar’s Fortune, Maharba, Recommendation etc.
Bellatrix Star is one of just 12 fillies to have placed in the G1 Coolmore since 2015 and only four have been offered for public auction off the track – Sunlight, Invincible Star, C’est Magique and Swats That.
She returned as a 4YO finishing a narrow 2nd in the G3 Sir John Monash Stakes last month before being forced into early retirement.
Overall she won five of her 13 career starts for $1,018,314 in prizemoney.
Bellatrix Star is by Star Witness, the broodmare sire of the likes of Bella Nipotina and Aeliana while her maternal grandsire Exceed And Excel is broodmare sire of 141 Stakes winners including 19 G1 winners.
Bellatrix Star will be offered for sale on behalf of her owners Fortuna Racing, who purchased her in conjunction with renowned judge Sir David Ellis as a yearling.
Fortuna’s John Galvin described Bellatrix Star as “a gorgeous and courageous mare’’.
“At the sales we mainly buy on type – pedigree is important but we always have a budget – however she was just a phenomenal type with a nice page that looked like she’d go early and she certainly did, winning the first 2YO race of the season,’’ Galvin said.
“She was just such a natural 2YO that continued to develop physically and mentally into her three and four-year-old career and as people will discover when they see her in the next week or so, she is physically pristine.
“We’ve bought a lot of horses with Inglis over the years and have dealt with the Inglis team a lot and given the timing of all of this, Inglis Digital just made the most sense to us because it’s been a benchmark for the industry with such a large and diverse buying bench for an elite mare like Bellatrix Star.’’
Inglis Digital’s Business Manager Nick Melmeth added: “It’s an honour to have the opportunity to offer to market such an incredibly appealing prospect as Bellatrix Star and we are very grateful to John Galvin and all of his partners and clients in Fortuna Racing.
“Sir David Ellis is an incredible judge of a yearling and the fact that he sourced her as a yearling with Fortuna is as big a compliment to her physique as a young horse as one could ask for.
“She had elite ability and would have been one of the stars of our Chairman’s Sale had she gone there, so to be able to offer her now, through Inglis Digital, with the Southern Hemisphere breeding season literally a matter of days away, is very exciting.’’
Bellatrix Star is available for inspection at Walker’s Cranbourne Stables ahead of the Inglis Digital September (Early) sale.
To organise an inspection, contact Te Akau’s Ben Gleeson on 0437 269 848 or alternatively, Inglis’ Victorian Bloodstock Manager James Price will inspect the mare early next week and is available to provide any feedback on 0409 806 595.
The September (Early) Online Sale will be held from September 4-9.
Entries remain open until midnight Wednesday (September 2).
To enter CLICK HERE.
