Photo: Race Images South
Victory bells have been ringing for Marie Leicester and her family for decades, with Romanoff (Belardo) the latest to hit a Group One note.
Leicester bred the Pam Gerard-trained son of Belardo who at Riccarton on Saturday added to an extensive role of honour when he triumphed in the New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m).
His pedigree is full of top-quality performers, including the outstanding mare Melody Belle, with all stemming from Belle Star.
She is the matriarch of a family line that started when she was sent to Foxbridge, then resident at Seton Otway’s Trelawney Stud, by Leicester’s parents James and Annie Sarten in the late 1930s.
“I was born in 1938, and Mum and Dad had paid their first service fee in 1937 to Seton for Foxbridge, and I’ve got the receipt framed and hanging up,” Leicester said.
“Dad had been lent the mare Belle Star and she didn’t get in foal that year and they sent her back the following year and the resulting foal was Belle Fox and that was the start of the Belle family.
“She was the mother of Belle Time, which is the line Romanoff is from, and she was by Summertime. We called that Dad’s family and then he gave the next filly to Mum which was Belle Rosa and that was Mum’s line.”
It has, and continues to be, a prolific family that includes 14-time Group One winner Melody Belle and Gr.1 Golden Slipper (1200m) winners Dance Hero and Belle Du Jour.
“It’s just been fabulous and the winners keep going on and on, Honey Belle and Star Belle were very good and Tri Belle was a Filly of the Year,” Leicester said.
“There were actually two Melody Belles, the Melody Belle I sold as a yearling was the second and Mum had one that won the first or second New Zealand Breeders’ Stakes at Te Aroha.
“Mum also won one of the early Matamata Breeders’ Stakes with Kashmir Belle and then I won the Waikato and Counties Cup and Sunline Vase with Annie Higgins.
“She was by O’Reilly and Mum was Irish and her maiden name was Annie Higgins, she’s the only of the family that I haven’t put a Belle in the name.”
Fast forward to current times and Romanoff, who was sold through Haunui Farm’s draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale for $70,000 to Ballymore Stables, Paul Moroney and Catheryne Bruggeman.
He is out of the late Stravinsky mare Tsarina Belle, who was a half-sister to Melody Belle’s dam Meleka Belle.
“Romanoff was her last foal, and I’ve always reckoned that she was the best-looking mare I ever bred. She was third in the 1000 Guineas and Lance O’Sullivan trained her,” Leicester said.
“The family has never stopped giving Mum and Dad and myself so many thrills. I’m still breeding from six mares from the Belle family and they are all at Haunui, the Chitty family have been wonderful.”
