Bellatrix Star, a four-time Group winner who has also placed at the highest level, will be offered at public auction through the Inglis Digital September (Early) Online Sale following a distinguished racing career across New Zealand and Australia.
Bellatrix Star has built one of the strongest records among New Zealand-bred fillies and mares of the past decade, with Group success on both sides of the Tasman and a career that began remarkably early.Bellatrix Star sale is set to attract considerable attention from the breeding industry.
Bellatrix Star Set for Inglis Digital Sale
The Mark Walker-trained mare announced herself before she had even reached her second birthday, winning at Wanganui on September 2 in the first two-year-old race of the Australasian season. The performance came almost three weeks before her official second birthday on September 19 and immediately marked her out as an unusually precocious racehorse.
Her early season continued in the same vein when she captured the G2 Eclipse Stakes on January 1, defeating future Group 1 winners Move To Strike and Velocious. A fourth-place finish in the $1 million Karaka 2YO Million followed, but it did little to diminish the impression she had already made.
It was during her three-year-old campaign that Bellatrix Star truly established herself among the leading performers of her generation.
Racing exclusively in Melbourne that spring, she won the Listed Cap d’Antibes Stakes at Flemington before adding the G3 Scarborough Stakes at Moonee Valley and the G2 Schillaci Stakes at Caulfield. She then produced another high-class performance when finishing second to Switzerland in the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes.
That campaign placed Bellatrix Star in company with a notable group of accomplished performers, including Lady of Camelot, Geegees Mistruth, Benagil, Another Prophet, Mornington Glory, Growing Empire, I Am Unstoppable, Coleman, Traffic Warden, Oscar’s Fortune, Maharba and Recommendation.
Her second-place finish in the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes also placed her among a particularly select group. Bellatrix Star is one of only 12 fillies to have finished in the placings in the race since 2015, with just four of those subsequently offered for public auction after leaving the track: Sunlight, Invincible Star, C’est Magique and Swats That.
She returned as a four-year-old and continued to perform at a high level, finishing a narrow second in the G3 Sir John Monash Stakes last month before being retired from racing earlier than expected.
Bellatrix Star retires with five victories from 13 starts and career earnings of $1,018,314.
Her pedigree adds another dimension to her appeal. By Star Witness, Bellatrix Star comes from a sire line associated with high-class performers, while her broodmare sire Exceed And Excel has featured as the broodmare sire of 141 Stakes winners, including 19 at Group 1 level.
The mare will be offered on behalf of Fortuna Racing, which purchased her as a yearling in conjunction with renowned judge Sir David Ellis.
Her physical appeal was a major factor in that original purchase, and her subsequent career has provided ample evidence of the quality seen at the sales.
Bellatrix Star will be available for inspection at Mark Walker’s Cranbourne stables ahead of the Inglis Digital September (Early) Online Sale. Interested parties can arrange an inspection through Te Akau’s Ben Gleeson, while Inglis Victorian Bloodstock Manager James Price is also scheduled to inspect the mare early next week and can provide further assessment.
For the breeding industry, the timing is significant, with the Southern Hemisphere breeding season only days away. Bellatrix Star therefore arrives at the sale with both an accomplished racing record and the pedigree and physical credentials to make her an important broodmare prospect.
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