19 Mar 2022Our late stallion Burgundy earned posthumous Group 1 honours at Trentham where Belle En Rouge reigned supreme in the New Zealand Oaks.
His daughter was a quality performer in the spring and early summer, placing in the G3 Soliloquy Stakes and G1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas before winning the G3 Eulogy Stakes and G2 Eight Carat Classic.
The Jamie Richards-trained Belle En Rouge then finished sixth in both the G2 David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic G3 Sunline Vase and defied her $26.70 Oaks starting price with a sterling performance.
Rider Jason Laking took advantage of an inside gate and put the filly in a perfect position, just ahead of midfield, before peeling wide coming near the home turn and stayed on gallantly after hitting the front a fair way from home.
“I got a nice run, four back and one off the fence, and she just went to sleep,” Laking said. “All credit to Jamie and the staff, they put in hours and hours of work, and he said to me that she would be a big chance.
“I got her out into the open, and I wondered if I might have gone a bit too early, but she toughed it out and won bloody well.”
Raced by the Te Akau Beautiful in Red Racing Partnership and bred by Te Akau’s David Ellis and Karyn Fenton-Ellis, Belle En Rouge has now won four of her 10 starts.
“We were 50/50 whether we were going to run this filly after her performance at Ellerslie, but she’s just got so much toughness about her,” Richards said. “She was able to overcome a few little things that haven’t been going her way.”
A stakes-winning half-brother by Redoute’s Choice to the multiple Group 1 winner and sire Darci Brahma, Burgundy’s stud career was cut prematurely short in 2019 when he succumbed to acute laminitis.