Melody Belle inducted into Racing Hall of Fame

Melody Belle after winning the 2021 Gr.1 Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes. Photo: Trish Dunell

Six people and four horses were inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame on Sunday night in a gala dinner in Hamilton.

They included champion racehorses Verry Elleegant, Melody Belle and Beau Vite, leading trainers Paul O’Sullivan, Michael Moroney and George Price and outstanding jockeys Opie Bosson and Keith Voitre.

Also inducted was breeder, auctioneer and administrator Ken Austin along with long-serving Wrightson Managing Director Michael Floyd.

Since the inaugural New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame dinner in 2006, 41 horses from racehorses to stallions and broodmares, and 53 people – including trainers, jockeys, owners, breeders and administrators – have been inducted to the elite list that honours New Zealand’s highest achievers in the thoroughbred sphere.

Bred by Marie Leicester, Melody Belle was sold out of Haunui Farm's draft for $57,500 at the 2016 NZB National Yearling Sale to the bid of Te Akau principal David Ellis, going on to race in the colours of the Fortuna Melody Belle Syndicate under the training of Jamie Richards and Stephen Autridge for her first two seasons and then solely by Richards.

She was a major winner every season from two to six years, voted New Zealand Champion 2YO in 2016-17, Champion Sprinter-Miler in 2018-19 and 2019-20, Champion Middle Distance Horse in 2019-20 and 2020-21 and New Zealand Horse of the Year in 2018-19 and 2019-20. In 41 starts from two to six years, she won 19 races and stakes of $4,265,000.

Melody Belle’s crowning glory was her March 2021 victory in the Gr.1 New Zealand Stakes (2000m), when she broke Sunline’s record of 13 Group One wins. Her tally of 14 Group One wins came at two, four, five and six years, ranging in distance from 1400m to 2040m. She also made history in 2019 as the first horse to complete the Hawke’s Bay Triple Crown, and a month after completing that hat-trick in the Livamol Classic (2040m), she added the Gr. 1 Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) at Flemington.