Punt Drunk: Melody Belle creates history winning 14 Group one’s
Punt Drunk Daily – 14/3/21
Well what a day that was! We had built up to the All Star Mile throughout the last month and despite the shitty Melbourne weather didn’t the race deliver in fine fashion? It was a case of seeing Hugh Bowman dressed in blue and white silks take out a massive race around Moonee Valley, but this time for Australian Thoroughbreds aboard Mugatoo. The Queensland-based Krone did what Queenslanders do best and took the main prize away from NSW when taking out the Coolmore Classic and all in all it was a pretty decent Saturday despite several favourites getting rolled.
Push Pineapple Shake A Tree
WHAT A RACE!
MUGATOO IS THE ALL-STAR MILE WINNER!! pic.twitter.com/yYaTY4VNj1
— 7HorseRacing ? (@7horseracing) March 13, 2021
Mugatoo, too too, push pineapple shake a tree. Okay maybe this is not the time for the Black Lace song Agadoo, but Mugatoo was super impressive yesterday in the All Star Mile and deserves all our attention even if it means getting an annoying song stuck in our head. The build up to the All Star Mile was spiced up early on Saturday with the scratching of Arcadia Queen, which resulted in a truck load of money coming for Russian Camelot. Probabeel eventually jumped as the race favourite but was brought undone by the wet ground as was the case in the Cox Plate. Speaking of the Cox Plate, Mugatoo was arguably the hard luck story of last year’s race yet got his due rewards thanks to a patient ride from Hugh Bowman. Hughy was looking for a run at the top of the straight and to the naked eye it looked like Russian Camelot would run away with the race and Mugatoo had to settle for being a hard luck story yet again. But when the gap appeared with 200m to go Mugatoo charged through the gap and kept the Russian at bay to claim arguably the best All Star Mile to date.
We have officially run out of ways to explain how great Melody Belle is
14 for Melody!@TeAkauRacing's Melody Belle creates history by breaking Sunline's record of Group 1 wins with her 14th in the Bonecrusher NZ Stakes pic.twitter.com/7jeq8Yc7O5
— TAB Racing (@TAB_Racing) March 13, 2021
The superstar New Zealand mare Melody Belle surpassed the legendary Sunline’s all time Group 1 figure of 13 Group 1 successes when taking out the Bonecrusher Stakes at Ellerslie yesterday afternoon. The 14th Group 1 success comes as no shock to anyone despite a poor run in Te Repa three weeks ago. Although, trainer Jamie Richards did say this is Melody Belle’s farewell tour with runs in Sydney or Brisbane on the agenda before being retired at the end of her current campaign. Despite often struggling to win in Australia outside of her win in the Empire Rose Stakes, Melody Belle will certainly go down as one of the greatest runners to have come out of the Southern Hemisphere.
Sunday Racing Tips – March 14, 2021
Punt Drunk’s best bet of the day
The Tony Gollan-trained Toucan Sam was only fair in defeat upon resumption a fortnight ago, however his best form looks to be the superior form. Having won on two occasion on rain affected ground and rounded out his last campaign with successive victories. He will settle towards the rear of the field and watch him to be rounding up the field early on in the home straight and be too good for this BM65 field.
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