Fortuna News Round Up 19th December
Two Fortuna horses to seek Group One glory at Ellerslie over the Summer Carnival
An exciting few days awaits the Fortuna Team in the next couple of weeks. On Boxing Day, Fortuna’s 8yo Gelding, CHANCE TO DANCE, contests the Group One Zabeel Classic (2000 metres) for $200,000 of prizemoney. Irish Bred and the winner of seven races from 28 starts in Ireland and Australia before being acquired by Fortuna in April of this year, CHANCE TO DANCE has won two of his three starts in NZ this Spring, one at Listed Level and the other at Group Three level.
Six Days later, last season’s Champion 2yo MELODY BELLE, contests the Group One Sistema Railway Stakes (1200 metres) for $200,000 of prizemoney. The winner of four races from eight race day starts, MELODY BELLE, has accumulated close to $900,000 of prizemoney in her career to date.
Fortuna Racing Manager, John Galvin, is shaking his head at the prospect of two of his charges contesting these two major events on the NZ Racing Calendar within a few days of each other. “It is an incredible prospect” he says,” here we have two horses, each at the opposite ends of the spectrum, one an 8yo genuine staying type who has been there and done it in three different countries, the other a fizzy 3yo sprinter with an amazing 2yo record, now taking on the big guns at the highest level – it doesn’t get much better than that. And interestingly many of the Members in the Melody Belle Syndicate are also in the Chance to Dance Syndicate as well, so those people are going to get two massive ownership thrills, win, lose or draw within a few days of each other at the same venue.”
Opie Bosson will ride Chance to Dance on Boxing Day and Michael McNab will ride Melody Belle on New Year’s Day
“Chance to Dance” – winning OMF Stakes – Ellerslie 7th November 2017
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Two Fortuna runners to make debuts over the Christmas Racing Carnival
Handsome Rebel (2yo Gelding – Denman-London Rebel) makes his race day debut at New Plymouth on 27th December.
Meteoric Lass (3yo Filly – Stratum-Benetar) debuts at Hastings on New Years Day.
Interestingly, both of these horses were acquired at the Gold Coast Magic Millions Sale, Meteoric Lass at the 2016 sale for A$50,000 and Handsome Rebel at the 2017 sale for A$65,000.
METEORIC LASS at the Matamata trials November 2017
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Fortuna entertains Te Akau Stable staff in Matamata 18th December
An enjoyable evening was had by all at Matamata’s well know Redoubt Bar when Fortuna’s John and Jessica Galvin put on a “shout” for the hard working Te Akau stable staff. John Galvin explains, “the Chance To Dance syndicate had approved a small slice of their winning prizemoney to be paid as a staff bonus and so we decided, seeing that it was Christmas time to give the stable staff a nice evening out. These people put in an incredible effort behind the scenes, getting up at 3.30 am in the morning, rain, hail and shine – they are an extremely dedicated bunch and it was a privilege to be able to show our appreciation in a small way for their efforts.”
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Race Fields Legislation approaches its final Hurdle before becoming law.
The Parliamentary Committee (Chaired by National MP David Bennett) has approved a final draft of the above legislation and all that needs to happen now is for the Bill to go before the House for a final reading – this should be a formality. The Bill puts into place legislation which applies a levy to the betting turnover of International Corporate bookmakers (primarily Australian based) who take bets on NZ Race Fields. Similar legislation has been in place in Australia for three or four years and the Australian Racing Jurisdictions have benefited to the tune of several hundreds of millions of dollars in that time. It is estimated that the NZ Racing Board will benefit to the tune of $15 to $20 million in the first year of implementation – a welcome shot in the arm for the NZ racing industry.