CLICK HERE TO GO BACK

The NZ Oaks was won easily in the end but it might well have been won at the beginning.

Natalie, in superb form with three Group wins from three drives, thought so when she was able to swing in from three wide and get in front of Belle of Montana.

But her decision to improve in the middle stages to take the front while the sectionals were a little relaxed was the key to an easy win.

“She felt good and I though I will be off and make the ones most likely work to beat her. She never really felt like she would be beaten in the run home. A great filly and she was on her game tonight”


The win heightened the 3yo Filly of the Year award contest which Belle of Montana looked to have a lead after the Nevele R last week. Now it is likely to come down to the Harness Jewels in two weeks.

Princess Tiffany ran close 3.08 for the 2600m breaking by close to a second the record set by Spanish Armada two years ago. She continued a great run for owners Phil and Margaret Creighton and Braeden and Caroline Whitelock who separately set new records on the night.

One aspect of that was that the Whitelocks Kayla Marie completed a “double second” chasing Belle of Montana home in the Nevele R Final and Princess Tiffany in the NZ Oaks.

Bubbled Up again looked a little off her peak finishing midfield after having enjoyed a nice run


Credit: Harnesslink Media, 18 May 2019; Courtesy of All Stars Racing Stables

Belle Of Montana continued her Australian winning form by beating the best harness racing 3yo fillies New Zealand had to offer when winning the $134,400 Gr1 Nevele R Fillies Series Final at Addington tonight.

Run at a hectic pace the fillies final was ideally set up for the Barry Purdon trained Belle Of Montana (Bettor's Delight - Lady Cullen).

While the leaders were duelling hard early, driver Zachary Butcher was giving Belle Of Montana a beautiful run on the outer and when the leaders started to battle at the 400m Butcher quickly pounced with Belle Of Montana.

She flew home down the middle of the track to win by half a length and beat Kayla Marie who had tracked her into the race at the turn. There was a further 4lengths away to race favourite Princess Tiffany in third.

A buzzing Zachary Butcher got a big thrill out of the win.

"To be honest that was one of the biggest thrills I have had in a long time," he said after the race.

"Sitting on a filly as good as this one and to be where she was with a lap to go aginst good horses and the way she rounded them up, that was pretty awesome," he said.

The leaders ran their first 800m of the race in a tick over 55 seconds.

"That was always going to suit her, she always comes home good off the speed and thats her style," Butcher said.

"She is as quick as any horse I have driven and when they went that hard early and we got a good drag into it, I still had a good handful of her. I thought then, we are a good show here and she put paid to them.

"She is getting better and better and is learning to race and is so relaxed and will never overdo herself. When you ask her to go there is always more in the tank," he said.

Belle Of Montana who has now won 8 of her 10 lifetime starts ran the 1980m mobile in a new 3yo fillies New Zealand record time of 2-20.5 which equates to a mile rate of 1-54.1

Next up for the Bettor's Delight filly is the Gr1 $150,000 New Zealand Oaks next Friday before heading on to the Harness Jewels on the 1st June.

Currently Belle Of Montana has a stranglehold on the No1 position on top of the 3yo Diamond Harness Jewels Leaderboard with double the stakes of the second placed Best Western.


Credit: Harnesslink Media, 11 May 2019

BELLE OF MONTANA:3 Br f Bettor’s Delight - Lady Cullen

OWNER: Montana Park Pty Ltd

BREEDER: Rod Croon

TIME: 2:25.1 Mile Rate: 1-57.9 Last 800m: 58.0 Last 400m: 27.4



The Three-Year-Old Diamond was hyped as a match-race between two serious pacing fillies, and the crowd in attendance was treated to the match race they were told all week in the build-up.

Belle of Montana and Princess Tiffany had raced on four previous occasions with the New Zealand Oaks victory a fortnight earlier being the only time Tiffany had got the better of the Barry Purdon trained filly.

Earlier in the season, Tiffany had not quite been at her best and may have had excuses.

With the ace draw and back to a shorter distance, Belle Of Montana had a few things in her favour, but many felt the slushy track might detract from her lethal sprint and play into the staying prowess of the Mark Purdon trained filly.

As it turned out, Belle as she is known was able to keep the lead, hand up to the Oaks winner and run past her up the lane, albeit by a freckle, with a withering burst of speed over the last 100m.

The daughter of Bettor’s Delight is regally bred on the Bettor’s/Cullen cross from a daughter of Andress Blue Chip in Lady Cullen.

Andress Blue Chip knows a thing or two about producing champion fillies with Belle Of Montana being from a half-sister to the champion Carabella, who claimed a three-year-old Diamond for herself when she swept all before her in the 2011 season.

Belle of Montana’s breeder Rod Croon acquired Lady Cullen from Robert Famularo having been acutely aware of her pedigree and the speed she had shown in her limited career on the race track.

“I did a deal with Robert Famularo who had the breed and being a half-sister to Carabella I thought she would make a nice prospect.

“I knew she had a lot of speed because I remember Steven Reid saying she was quick,” said Croon.

Her former owner Robert Famularo echoed those sentiments remembering unsolicited quotes from trainers who as he details, had no rhyme nor reason to pump up his tyres or that of the mare.

“She went in the suspensory originally and we think she did it on the float to the races at Auckland,” said Famularo.

“It was a real shame as Steven Reid told me she was the fastest horse he ever sat behind, and at that time he was training the likes of Monkey King and Bailey’s Dream which tells you something.

“We brought her back slowly and she was just about ready to make a return to racing. Brendan Hill had her at his stage and he made the comment he thought she had the ability to win her first seven races in a row.

Carabella was the first live foal after Lady Cullen so Brendan Hill would have been expecting a bit of ability, but got all that and more from the daughter of Bettor’s Delight.

Andress Blue Chip, unraced, is the mother of both and is an imported American mare by Artsplace.

Andress Blue Chip’s half-sister Athena Blue Chip was by Goalie Jeff (Cam Fella) and she was good enough to win three stakes races at both two and three and earn $457,118 in stakes as well as setting a lifetime mark of 1:50.3.
Andress Blue Chip has an Artsplace daughter of her own in New Zealand under the ownership of Bruce Carter and Ross Johnson in Saddle Ridge. She has been a fine producer in her own right as the mother of The Bucket List, Extreme Machine & the smart mare Somethingaboutmary.

Lady Cullen had not been injecting any of that lethal speed into her foals with her first three live foals including a full brother and sister only able to win 4 races among them.

Since Belle of Montana, she has had only the Somebeachsomewhere filly who qualified as a two year old this season for Mark Jones and is in the ownership of Famularo amongst others.

“Lady Cullen died a few days after foaling down south which was unfortunate, it must have been a rupture somewhere,” said Famularo. She is survived however by her multiple Group One winning daughter and soon to be anointed three-year-old Filly of the Year, who Croon remembers well having still been hands on with his involvement in preparing yearlings for the sales at his previous property.

“She was quite a striking looker, she was black yearling but was quite a timid horse.

She was never the boss in the paddock but she had a presence about her. I sold her at the sales for $40,000,” said Croon.

Croon is no longer involved in the breeding industry he gave three decades of service too, citing the sale of his farm as the main reason as he no longer had the ability to be hands on with the stock he enjoyed so much.

“I’m totally out of it at the moment, I needed to have a breather after 30 years breeding horses but I will be back at the yearling sales in a couple of years I imagine to have another go.

“I certainly still get a thrill in seeing horses I bred win big races as they are few and far between. That was my first breeding winner of a Jewels.

“Belle Of Montana actually beat the last horse I still had an ownership interest in called Big On Personality. We have sold her since but when Belle beat her, I realized how good she was.

Croon has had a distinguished career as Chairman and log term committee member of the ATC and more recently HRNZ’s appointee to the soon to be refocused NZ Racing Board, under its new name of Racing Industry Transition Agency. Rod’s term on the board will come to an end with the Minister taking the power to make all future appointments.

“It’s been good to be on the Board but there have been some frustrating times as well. Politics had gotten in the way a bit towards the end with race fields legislation getting delayed which was annoying, but it is what it is I suppose.

“We’ve just signed on a new CEO at the Auckland Trotting Club. Our current President is retiring from the ATC in October which will probably see me step into that role for two years and then that will likely be the end of my involvement from an administration level also”, said Croon.

TURN IT UP:4 Br g Courage Under Fire - O Narutac Bella

OWNERS: J A Gibbs MNZM, L Pilcher, Mark Purdon, Mrs A Gibbs

BREEDERS: B C Edward, Mrs V A Edward

TIME: 2:22.6 Mile Rate: 1-55.8 Last 800m: 58.1 Last 400m: 27.5



20“I certainly still get a thrill in seeing horses I bred win big races as they are few and far between. That was my first breeding winner of a Jewels. “Belle Of Montana actually beat the last horse I still had an ownership interest in called Big On Personality. We have sold her since but when Belle beat her, I realized how good she was. Croon has had a distinguished career as Chairman and long term committee member of the ATC and more recently HRNZ’s appointee to the soon to be refocused NZ Racing Board, under its new name of Racing Industry Transition Agency. Rod’s term on the board will come to an end with the Minister taking the power to make all future appointments. “It’s been good to be on the Board but there have been some frustrating times as well. Politics had gotten in the way a bit towards the end with race fields legislation getting delayed which was annoying, but it is what it is I suppose. “We’ve just signed on a new CEO at the Auckland Trotting Club. Our current President is retiring from the ATC in October which will probably see me step into that role for two years and then that will likely be the end of my involvement from an administration level also,” said Croon.

Credit: Brad Reid