He was bred to win a Derby but Abby Heffer will be hoping blueblood gelding Bellugi can carry to her success of a different kind in Bendigo tomorrow when they line up in the 2017 Off the Track Show Series Final.
A son of Zabeel out of Stakes-winning mare Moonflute, herself a daughter of Danehill, Bellugi was bred and raced by prominent owner Gerry Harvey and was defeated by a collective 60 lengths in five starts for Sydney trainer Anthony Cummings.
While talented horsewoman Amy McDonald couldn’t find the key to the gelding in two subsequent starts in Victoria, she identified him likely type for a showing career and retired him into the care of 20-year-old show rider Heffer.
“I got him in October 2015 from trainer Amy McDonald,” Heffer, who campaigns the horse as Dior, said.
“Kasey Besanko, who used to ride trackwork on my other Off the Track horse Pink, is always keeping an eye out for nice retired horses and let me know that she’d found a horse that I might be interested in.
“He’d raced on the Saturday and I picked him up on the Monday.”
The fact that Heffer is back in the saddle, let alone chasing a win in one of the state’s premier show horse events tomorrow, is a miracle in itself.
Only days after she started working with Dior, the Whittlesea rider was involved in a serious accident that saw her hospitalised and endure months of rehabilitation before being allowed to continue the gelding’s education.
“When I did get him I only got to put a week of work into him before I had a really bad accident so I didn’t get to ride him until the following March, so essentially he’s only had a couple of months work before he came out last year,” she said.
“I wasn’t riding but I had a horse fall on me which broke my leg and I ended up in hospital on life support.”
Heffer said the relative ease and speed with which Bellugi had transitioned into the show ring was largely due to his affable attitude and trainability, something common in thoroughbreds but, in the case of many of Zabeel’s progeny, a process that requires patience.
“He is really easy to work with and his temperament is amazing, which might be surprising to some people because he is by Zabeel,” she said.
“I thought he was going to be a bit of a handful but I was completely surprised when I started riding him because he just copes with everything so amazingly well.”
While a win in tomorrow’s event would be a dream come true, Heffer is well aware of the competition she will face from several of her more seasoned rivals – including defending champion and 2016 Garryowen champion Entourage for Briony Randle – but believes her mount is well placed to vie for one of the consolation awards offered in the class.
Having raced as recently as October 2015, Bellugi is eligible for the Off the Track Newcomer Award, which carries $500 prizemoney and is open to horses that have raced in the last two year period.
Beyond this weekend, Heffer is optimistic that the seven-year-old can establish himself among the upper echelon of Victorian show hacks and carry her to victory in some of Australia’s premier events.
“He’s still a baby so I’ll just be focusing on putting in a nice workout on Saturday but I think next season he’ll continue to develop into a really nice horse,” she said.
“I bought him knowing that he’d be the sort of horse I could target at a Garryowen and that’s what I’m planning to do with him, either this year or next year.”
The Off the Track Show Series Final will be conducted at 5.30pm at the Prince of Wales Showgrounds in Bendigo as part of the Victorian Agricultural Shows (VAS) annual Saddle Horse Championships.
The event, run exclusively for retired thoroughbred racehorses that have qualified via victory in an Off the Track class at a Victorian agricultural show, has attracted entries from more than 40 combinations.
More information on the event is available here.