Test for Belle du Nord
Belle du Nord’s ability to cope with a middle distance will be answered at Hawke’s Bay today.
The Group I performer will run over ground for a second time in the Group III Little Avondale Lowland Stakes (2100m) after her first attempt in the Sir Tristram Fillies’ Classic (2000m) gave little indication of her staying quality.
‘‘Johnathan (Parkes) came back and said she was travelling brilliantly on the turn, but when he let her have her head she just couldn’t cope with the slow ground,’’ said Emma-Lee Browne, who trains the filly with her husband David.
‘‘It was the track conditions more than anything else so we’ve really yet to see. We think she’ll be okay on a better track though.
‘‘She’s been working well since and the only little concern we have is that she didn’t have a really good hit-out last time because of the track.’’
Group I-placed in the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes
(1400m) and the Levin Classic
(1600m), Belle du Nord will be ridden by Vinnie Colgan while stablemate Luxe will be partnered by Darryl Bradley.
He guided the three-year- old into a last-start third at New Plymouth in the Listed Oaks Prelude (1800m).
‘‘There’s not a lot to her, she’s only small, but she’s racing well and the distance will definitely be no problem for her,’’ Browne said. Yet to win a race, Luxe opened her preparation with consecutive fourths at Te Awamutu and Tauranga before she was unplaced at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day.
‘‘In the Royal Stakes she went forward and it didn’t work, she likes to do her own thing,’’ Browne said.