Ciaron Maher has Bella Nipotina ready to rumble in Saturday’s Group 1 Lightning Stakes at Flemington
Bella Nipotina finished a half-length short of glory in last year’s Lightning Stakes but is set to weigh in at the right time in Saturday’s edition of the famous Flemington sprint.
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The Ciaron Maher camp’s “iron mare” is at the right weight to do battle in yet another Group 1 contest in Saturday’s Lightning Stakes at Flemington.
Bella Nipotina has had 15 of her 43 starts at the highest level, winning the 2022 Manikato Stakes at The Valley and finishing in the minor placings in another five Group 1 races.
The rising seven-year-old will race in her sixth calendar year in 2024 after starting her career as a pre-Christmas two-year-old in October 2019.
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“She’s just an iron mare that keeps coming back,” Maher’s assistant trainer Jack Turnbull said.
Bella Nipotina finished a close second in the much-discussed barrier trial that featured odds-on Lightning Stakes favourite Imperatriz last Monday.
Turnbull said that hitout left Bella Nipotina at the fitness level required to again take on some of the best sprinters in training down the Flemington straight.
“She stands at around 525(kg) now, which is just nice for her first-up,” Turnbull said.
“She’s got improvement in condition but she’s effective down the straight and is a really good place physically.”
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Bella Nipotina is an $8 chance to give Ciaron Maher a second consecutive Lightning Stakes after he and former training partner combined to win last year’s race with Coolangatta.
Bella Nipotina ran third, beaten a half-length, behind her stablemate in 2023.
Turnbull said the stable would view a similar result as the perfect start to a campaign that could include several targets in both Melbourne and Sydney in the coming weeks.
“She’s going to be competitive,” Turnbull said.
“But in a field of that quality and the numbers, if it’s a positive run where she’s rounding off the race well or she finishes top three, then it’s a pass mark essentially.”
Jockey Craig Williams will ride Bella Nipotina for the 15th time in the Lightning Stakes.
Originally published as Ciaron Maher has Bella Nipotina ready to rumble in Saturday’s Group 1 Lightning Stakes at Flemington
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