Belle Cheval retired

The glittering racing career of Group One winner Belle Cheval (NZ) (Savabeel) has come to a premature end.

The Gr.1 Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m) heroine resumed at Caulfield last Saturday in the Gr.3 Courtza Stakes (1200m), where she finished last, and following the race she was found to have a respiratory complaint, and the decision was made to retire her from the track.

“She’s been officially retired from racing after pulling up with a respiratory complaint following her fresh-up run last Saturday,” trainer Mark Walker said.

“She was a filly that showed really good talent from day one and grew up a lot during her first preparation.

“She was a high-class filly that deserved all her success, was very lightly raced, and it was a pleasure to train her for David (Archer) and Diane (Wright), and their family.”

Bred and raced by well-known racing identity David Archer, Belle Cheval is by the late Champion New Zealand sire Savabeel and out of Keepa Cheval, a winning half-sister to Archer’s 10-time Group One winner Mufhasa. Belle Cheval is a half-sister to Archer’s other star performer, three-time Group One winner Bostonian, while her half-sister Vitesse is also the dam of Group One winner Kovalica.

With such a rich pedigree, there were plenty of expectations surrounding Belle Cheval heading into her racing career, and Archer entrusted her to the care of Te Akau Racing trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson at Matamata.

After placing over 1300m on debut at Taupo in October last year, she won her second outing over 1400m at Ellerslie a fortnight later before heading south to Riccarton where she placed behind Well Written and Lollapalooza in the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m).

She resumed with an emphatic win in the Gr.3 Almanzor Trophy (1200m) under leading Australian hoop Craig Williams at Ellerslie on Karaka Millions night, and backed that up with victory in the Gr.3 Uncle Remus Stakes (1400m) at the Auckland track a month later.

Her performances attracted the attention of several $4 million The NZB Kiwi (1500m) slot holders, and her services were secured by The King's Men syndicate.

All eyes were on the unbeaten Well Written in the richest three-year-old race in the Southern Hemisphere, with the Stephen Marsh-trained filly jumping a money back favourite, but Belle Cheval nearly upset the applecart when charging home late to get within a short head of victory.

Buoyed by her impressive run of form, the decision was made to test her talent in Australia, and she rewarded her connections with victory in the Vinery Stud Stakes.

Her retirement has come as a blow to owner-breeder David Archer, but he said her welfare comes first and he is looking forward to welcoming her back to his property, where she will be alongside his other former star equine athletes Mufhasa and Bostonian.

“She is a valuable broodmare and we love her very much,” Archer said. “It is not worth putting her through what she would need to go through to see if we could save her racing career, so we are going to do the right thing by her and retire her.

“She has been a great horse and given us a lot of fun, and we were looking forward to the next two to three years (racing), but that is not going to be.

“Graeme Rogerson said to me after she won her second start at Ellerslie ‘you have got your next Mufhasa’. We had Mufhasa and Bostonian, and to get three like that in one lifetime is great.”

With her racing career coming to an end and spring now underway, Archer’s attention is now on the breeding season, and he said she will stay in Australia for her first mating before returning to New Zealand.

“We have talked to the key players we know here and we are looking to put her to an Australian stallion and then bring her home,” Archer said. “We have had contact from some of the studs in Australia, who rate her extremely highly.

“I have got some very good friends doing the homework for me because as one top man said to me ‘you love your horses so much, one of the big things you have got to do is find the stallion, but find a place where she is going to be kept in cotton wool’. So that is going to be part of the judgment, we want her taken care of and we will give her a big hug when she comes here.

“She has given us a lot of fun and if it wasn’t for a little twist we would have had a lot more fun with her.”

It’s been a tough week for Archer and his family, with two of their other racehorses suffering injuries.

“In the space of seven days we lost Three Arrows and Belle Cheval, and Navy Ensign went sore. It is a tough game,” Archer said.

“Three Arrows had come back from injury and had two seconds, and he raced on the Wednesday for John O’Shea and his injury flared up again, which is probably career ending.  We then had Belle Cheval having her issue on the Saturday, and Navy Ensign was coming back at Ellerslie on Saturday, and he went sore on the Monday.”

Archer received better news on Tuesday, with three of his mares arriving at Cambridge Stud to be served, including Belle Cheval’s dam, Keepa Cheval.

“She is in-foal to Chaldean,” Archer said. “We dropped three mares at Cambridge Stud today and Scott (Calder, Cambridge Stud sales and nominations manager) said Keepa Cheval at her age looks very well, which is what the troops at home have been saying.

“She is going back to Chaldean.”