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Te Akau Racing mare pulled up well following luckless run in Herbie Dyke

Jamie Richards has said that Melody Belle (Commands) will likely head to the Bonecrusher Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) next following her luckless but disappointing run in Saturday’s Herbie Dyke Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at Te Rapa. 

“When Opie (Bosson) needed her to improve at about the 700 metre she hit a flat spot,” Richards said.

“Tiptronic was dictating to her from the outside and then Camino Rocoso squeezed her from the inside.

“She just ended up with nowhere to go and wasn’t persevered with in the latter stages.

“It’s a great leveler this game, but she looks fine, trotted up well on Sunday morning and we will most likely press on to the Bonecrusher Stakes at Ellerslie with a little trial at Rotorua to tick her over beforehand.”

Richards was however pleased with the victories of Avantage (Fastnet Rock) and Amarelinha (Savabeel) who won the BCD Group Sprint (Gr 1, 1400m) and David & Karyn Ellis Classic (Gr 2, 2000m) respectively.

“Avantage won well although it was unfortunate we didn’t get to see Levante and her go head-to-head, which is disappointing for the sport,” he said.

“Avantage was able to race on the speed and take bad luck out of the equation.

“We will have a team talk in the next 24 hours but at this stage she is on target for the Group One mile at Otaki in a fortnight.

“Amarelinha has a great turn of foot and managed to find room in the straight when it was looking a little tricky.

“She is a very exciting filly and has pulled up well again.

“We’ll have a team talk about her as well as there are a lot of moving parts in terms of where she heads to next.

“We’re mindful of travel issues and the like, so what decisions we take will have those considerations built in.”