Harrington fillies en-route for Southland Trotting Oaks

Friday afternoon (7 Oct.) harness racing heads to Ascot Park in Invercargill where the Northern Southland Trotting Club is set to host an eight-race programme headlined by the fourth installment of the Haras Des Trotteurs Southland Trotting Oaks.

After failing to get off the ground last season, the race for three-year-old trotting fillies has attracted a tidy field of 10 runners with plenty of local hopes looking to keep the lion’s share of the prize money in the southern region.

Canterbury trainers have had a stranglehold on the feature since its inception in 2018 with the likes of Luby Lou, Swiss Miss and Tailored Elegance all proving too strong in small but select fields to date.

Looking to continue the trend is young Canterbury horseman, Jack Harrington, who is making his way south today with his two talented trotting fillies, Ti Amo Belle (Love You) and Miss Yo (Peak).

Ti Amo Belle is coming off an excellent fresh up run at Addington last Friday where she was dominant in downing a full field of one-win trotters including the talented Purdon/Cullen trained trotter Wy Fi (Love You).

Her time of 2:33.5 for the 2000m stand was a New Zealand record for three-year-old fillies, lowering the previous mark by 1.4 seconds. Better yet, her pilot Blair Orange notified the stipes he never removed the hood due to having the field covered.

TI AMO BELLE REPLAY

“I was definitely very pleased with her given she was fresh and first up on her new campaign,” said Harrington.

“I think being in front really suited her and even though she had to work to find the top, at this stage it’s where she is most comfortable. She doesn’t have a lot of out and out speed, but she is a big strong type, and she is better trying to grind them into the ground, that’s more her type of go.

“Down in the grades she probably has the ability to be back in the field and run past them but racing the better-quality horses her best attribute will be making it a staying test,” he said.

Ti Amo Belle is the third foal from Chiola Belle (Sundon), a full sister to former Open Class mare, Belle Galleon, the dam of millionaire Stent (Dream Vacation) and up and coming Australian star Ollivici (Orlando Vici) as well as G1 winning filly, Arya (Angus Hall).

Being out of a high-quality trotting family meant when Harrington secured Ti Amo Belle at the 2020 Yearling Sales in Christchurch, she didn’t come cheap with the gavel coming down at $41,000, the second highest price paid for a trotting filly that year.

“I wasn’t really going to buy a yearling, I looked at a few but didn’t really have enough owners behind me to buy one that year as they were tied up with previous purchases. I had another look at this girl and couldn’t help myself.

“She didn’t show me a lot early on, she is quite a big girl and when she was a baby it took her a while to learn her craft and her body was trying to do things her mind wasn’t ready for if you know what I mean. It probably took her a little while to come to it, but when she came to that second or third prep is when she really started to mature and knew what she had to do, and we never really looked back,” he said.

A lack of manners in her first two starts are the only blights on her six-race career thus far which is comprised by two wins and two second placings. Most of her racing has been from the tapes and Harrington is not concerned with how the daughter of Love You will handle the mobile tomorrow afternoon.

“She had one at Ashburton where she sat parked the trip and sort of showed a little bit of gate speed there. She has had a bit of practice at the trials, and it doesn’t look like it will be an issue for her,” he said.

Also on the float south is the daughter of Peak in Miss Yo. She is a half-sister to the very speedy former Harrington trained mare, Hey Yo, and the Rowe Cup winner in Bolt For Brilliance.

Having purchased Hey Yo off a trading website for the bargain price of $4000, the daughter of Revenue put him on the map at a time when his training career was just getting started.

She would go on to win over $150,000 in stakes and place third in a Great Southern Star final which lead to Harrington leasing the dam of his race mare, Toomuch To Do, after this scribe was finished weaning a scrubby looking Muscle Hill colt off the mare.

Harrington produced two foals by Peak, a colt and a filly in subsequent breeding seasons and in that time, Bolt For Brilliance started to show what we now know him to be capable of.

While Miss Yo hasn’t set the world on fire with her racetrack performances, she has showed glimpses of being a trotting filly with above average ability however the daughter of Peak seems to have inherited a few of the temperament issues her father became renowned for passing onto his stock.

“To be honest these two girls on the float do a lot of work together and there isn’t a lot of separating them.

“Miss Yo is probably a better track worker, but I think it’s probably a case of the Love You coming out of the other filly on race day.

“She has a bit better head on her shoulders and is more of a sensible type whereas Miss Yo is still trying to get a handle on standing starts and can get a bit fired up and isn’t as mentally mature as the other one,” he said.

Those mannerisms were on full display last Friday where Miss Yo was backed into third favourite after a very good fifth in behind Hot To Trot a week earlier from behind the mobile. Back to the stand, she never looked like settling before skipping away and extinguishing her chances.

“On out and out ability there isn’t a lot between them. Looking at the stride master results last Friday once she actually got down and trotting her sectionals were actually pretty good and Zac (Butcher) said that she actually felt a million bucks.

“It’s probably a case of if it were a standing start race, I probably wouldn’t have bought her down as it’s a long way to travel for her to only be a 50/50 chance of stepping.

“Miss Yo if things go her way has a wicked sprint on her and has a lot of high speed and Ti Amo Belle is big and tough and can hopefully outstay them so whichever way it goes in the future you would like to think one of them is a chance of getting a run to suit,” he said.

Among the local contenders is the now poorly named Hidden Talent (Bacardi Lindy), who after her last start performance in the Group Three Sires Stakes Classique finds herself the second favourite for the G1 New Zealand Trotting Oaks in six weeks’ time.

She was incredible in coming off the speed to reel in a talented bunch of trotting fillies at her first look at age group racing and despite copping another wide barrier draw has shown she has inherited the family speed to be making her own luck in the running.

HIDDEN TALENT REPLAY

While tomorrow afternoon’s field is without any black type, the $20,000 stake has attracted a talented field that should serve as a nice entree for the bigger targets to come later in the spring.

“I think obviously Nathan’s filly and Tony’s filly are the top two fillies at this stage, but I’m reasonably confident of my two being competitive in some of the bigger races down the track,” said Harrington.

Intertwined with the classics in the spring is the breeding season which is now upon us. Harrington is hopeful for some better fortune this year with Hey Yo who has had a heartbreaking start to her career as a broodmare.

“She is due late November, early December sort of time. She seems really well, and it would be really nice to get a foal out of her after losing her first one to kidney failure at just three months of age. It was pretty gutting but hopefully this year is the year, and we can build off that. She is foaling a Father Patrick and due to go to Tactical Landing all going well,” he said.

For complete Northern-Southland race fields, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink