Fortuna Racemare INCA BELLE produces strong winning performance at Tauranga 12th January

Previous course winner Inca Belle (4 m Per Incanto – Belle Vie, by Darci Brahma) was back to her best winning the $40,000 Rating 65 1400 metres on 12 January at Tauranga. After finishing well for close fifth in the Rating 65 1400 metres on 22 December at Matamata, Inca Belle had shown a liking for the course at her only previous start there in March 2023, when capping a hat-trick of wins at just the third start and returned to that sort of form  at this latest outing.

Ridden by Te Akau Racing’s apprentice Niranjan Parmar, Inca Belle settled between runners beyond midfield, six lengths back at the 600m, and angled clear on straightening she quickened very well to claim stable-mate Alminette (Burgundy), who travelled three wide near the pace throughout for jockey Opie Bosson. On footing upgraded to Good4, in the race sponsored by Ray White Greerton, Inca Belle ran 1400 metres in 1:25.1 and paid $7.00 & $2.50 on the NZ TAB tote.

Click HERE to see the race replay

“She was really well ridden by Parmar and good to see her win like that,” said co-trainer Mark Walker. “She goes back up in grade now, but the way she won today suggests she can go on with it. She showed a lot of promise as a three-year-old, just hit a bit of a flat spot but she’s come back to form now and is another horse that Dave (Ellis) and John (Galvin) bought really cheaply at the Ready to Run Sale.”

  INCA BELLE –  makes it four career wins Tauranga 12th January 2024 – Niranjan Parmar aboard

Fortuna Director, John Galvin, was not on track on the day as he had been attending the Magic Millions Gold Coast sale during the week and was on a flight coming home to New Zealand when the race was run – “It was just great to land at Auckland airport and see my phone light up with messages from several parties, indicating that we had run the race. From the draw (7) we gave Parmar the instructions to see where she was comfortable and I thought he handled the task pretty well,” he said.  “She was never under any pressure in the run, was able to travel nicely and on turning for home you could sense she was working her way into it. She loomed from the 300m and always looked like she was going to be in the finish. She only won by a narrow margin (short neck), but was pretty soft at the line and won with authority. She was very competitive last start at Matamata, finishing fifth in a blanket finish, so she was ready to win today I thought. She’ll be in Rating 75 grade now and that is always a hard grade to win, but I think she is ready to take the step. She was a reasonably priced Ready to Run purchase by David and I, with a lovely pedigree, and she’s developed into a very handy race mare and future breeding proposition.”

John has just returned from the 2024 Gold Coast Yearling Sale, where he and David Ellis purchased Lot 437: bay filly Spirit of Boom – Aotearower (Shamardal) for $100,000 from the draft of Cambridge Stud.

“We’ve just put our new Magic Millions purchase on the Fortuna website and we’ve already had expressions of interest for 30 percent after just a few hours,” Galvin said  “With Mark’s (Walker) involvement, we were able to get her for budget which is very pleasing. Spirit of Boom has been Champion Sire in Queensland four times and currently in the top 10 on the Australian General Sires’ List for winners and wins. He also has a very good stakes-winners-to-runners ratio as well. It’s also a great dam line, with Aotearower and grand-dam Kaatoon (Kaapstad) both impressive winners, and she’s a beautiful moving filly. David (Ellis) really took the sale by the scruff of the neck with some outstanding purchases and it’s very exciting for everyone involved, especially having the new Te Akau stables in place at Cranbourne  in Victoria.”

Te Akau Apprentice NIRANJAN PARMAR returns to scale on INCA BELLE

Bred by R A Williams, Inca Belle was purchased by David Ellis CNZM and John Galvin for $50,000 at the 2021 NZB Ready To Run Sale, from the draft of Phoenix Park, and is owned by Fortuna Inca Belle Syndicate, an Ownership Group consisting of 49 individuals from New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong and has now fashioned a race record of 4 wins and 1 2nd from 14 raceday starts amd has accumulated prizemoner earnings of $76,000

Inca Belle was strapped by Cooper Stumbles