Kiwi mare Belclare makes it back-to-back feature wins in Hot Danish Stakes

Dual Group winner Belclare could be have another shot at a major this spring following another superb all-the-way win in the Group 2 Hot Danish Stakes at Rosehill.

Star jockey Tyler Schiller reckons in-form mare Belclare’s brilliant ability to lead could be mirrored at the highest levels of office.

“I feel like if she could run for Prime Minister she would, because she’s a good dictator,” Schiller joked.

Belclare had just highlighted her own qualities after producing another bold frontrunning effort to capture the Group 2 $500,000 Hot Danish Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill Gardens.

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Schiller was able to find the front with relative ease on the smart daughter of Per Incanto and travel along under his own steam in the fillies and mares feature.

He did the same to win The Invitation two starts ago with a near identical result.

The Bjorn Baker-trained Belclare ($3.30) was able to sprint clear in the straight to beat home the Grahame Begg-trained Magic Time ($2.40 favourite) again, scoring by 1¼ lengths.

Chris Waller’s Olentia ($5.50), fourth in The Invitation last start, was 1¾ lengths back in third.

“I thought they were going to put a bit more pressure on, from the 800m she got a bit of pressure up on her outside and she really started to lock on and just take me,” Schiller said.

“I knew from there she was going to be pretty hard to beat because she did the same thing at Randwick going up that rise.

“There’s no rise today so it wasn’t that tough a task for her.”

Belclare was transferred to Australian from New Zealand and had a pair of Group 1 victories already to her name with back-to-back wins in the NZ Thoroughbred Breeders (1600m).

She arrived in Australia at the beginning of this preparation but failed to fire in her first two starts for Baker, who was in Melbourne to watch Overpass in the Champions Sprint.

Electing to remove the blinkers in her more recent starts has proven to be a masterstroke for the stable as Belclare has harnessed her elite front running ability.

It was on full display again in the Hot Danish Stakes.

“She made her own luck,” Baker’s racing manager Luke Hilton said.

“I was surprised when Tyler got there so easily and there wasn’t a lot of pressure around.

Belclare leads all the way in the G2 Hot Danish Stakes for @BBakerRacing and @G1TySchil, who rides a double! pic.twitter.com/UWtw544KpA

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) November 9, 2024

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“I was pretty confident after they’d gone a couple of hundred metres that she was going to be tough to beat.

“She likes to dictate.

“It was just probably the 1400m, 1400m, 1400m we were a little bit like, maybe she was looking for a touch further, but Tyler rated her perfectly.”

Belclare holds a nomination for the Group 1 Railway Stakes (1600m) at Ascot in a fortnight’s time and the stable are keen to give serious thought to the idea of heading west.

She also holds nominations for the Northerly Stakes and The Gold Rush during Perth’s summer carnival.

“We’ve spoken about maybe heading over west to a race like the Railway in a couple of weeks’ time,” Hilton said.

“We’ll sit down with the owner, he’s very involved and he loves this mare, so if he gives us the sign off we might look at giving her a crack at another Group One.”

Magic Time would have lost few admirers in defeat.

She was racing in the colours of Yulong for the first time after it was revealed the Group 1 winning mare was purchased for an undisclosed seven figure deal following her last start.

Yulong have enjoyed a golden spring with Group 1 successes with Via Sistina and Treasurethe Moment as well as several more stakes successes.

Magic Time was brave as ever in defeat after being caught three deep in the run.

“She went great. Just the barrier killed her,” jockey Zac Lloyd said.

Olentia’s jockey Tommy Berry queried whether 1400m was too far for the Waller mare at this stage of her career while fourth placegetter Navyonthehighway “ran very well”, according to hoop Tim Clark.

Originally published as Kiwi mare Belclare makes it back-to-back feature wins in Hot Danish Stakes