Hot off the press, Beautiful Girl during trackwork this morning - photo by Mike Sanders
When I purchased the Group Three-winning race mare Beautiful Girl (Black Minnaloushe ex Piccadilly Lily, by Rubiton) earlier this year for a client there were a few options in front of us. She could have gone straight to stud; her race record & pedigree means she is immediately ‘K1’ material. Another option was to try her one more time on the track.
With the support of her new owner, I went for the latter option. The first priority was to find her a new trainer. It was no reflection on her previous trainer, more a case of giving her a fresh start, new surroundings and a differing training regime.
Top of my list of trainers for this was John Bary, so I approached him at the Te Rapa races and said I had a “project horse” for him if he was interested. John loves a challenge, has a wonderfully-positive approach to his trade and was keen to give Beautiful Girl an opportunity from his Hastings base.
That was back in the autumn. She’s since had a spell and a long build-up to a fresh start which happens on Saturday in the Open 1200m Sprint at Hastings. Its guess work as to how she will go, but reports to date have been encouraging. The beautiful (no pun intended) thing about quality race mares is that there is always a Plan B. If she’s not racing up to her best, she will be immediately retired and off to stud.