Photo: Trish Dunell
A mare bought sight unseen proved to be an astute purchase for Fairdale Stud’s Duncan Fell.
In 2005 Fell entrusted a friend to buy two-time winner Eden (Zedative x Pleasure Garden) at the Inglis Summer Sale and she went on to produce five winners including Saturday’s Gr.3 R A Lee Stakes (1600m) winner Belle Plaisir (Proisir).
“I bought Eden back when they used to have monthly sales at Inglis,” Fell said. “I had a friend working there at the time and he bought her for me pretty cheaply and I sent her to Choisir for her first year and then brought her home.
“I liked her pedigree, I didn’t even see her, I had someone else have a look at her.”
That pedigree includes Group One winners Chlorophyll (Zedative x Floral) and Garthorn (Believe It x Garden Verse) and Fell is thrilled Belle Plaisir is adding her own black-type to the family.
“It’s pretty exciting,” he said. “Especially when she is winning at that level in Australia, as a breeder it is what you strive for.
“I thought she would run well because the start before was a very good run and she was unlucky not to win, she had some bad luck in the straight.
“There were some good horses in there though, so you are never too confident but luckily she put her best foot forward.”
Eden’s other progeny include stakes performer Glade (Iffraaj) who won on four occasions, eight-time winner Heavens Keep (Savabeel), and multiple Hong Kong winners Garlic Yeah (Savabeel) and Aurora Pegasus (Iffraaj).
Lucy Tanner, co-owner and former trainer of Belle Plaisir, first became involved with the family when Fell sent her Heavens Keep as a young horse when injury prevented him from seeing the sale ring.
“Eden had a really nice Savabeel that had a paddock accident and wasn’t able to go to the sales so I ended up giving him to Lucy,” Fell explained. “He was a quite a handy horse and from there Lucy, with the family association, bought Belle Plaisir at auction.”
Photo: Atkins Photography
Tanner went to $32,000 to secure Belle Plaisir and the five-year-old mare has now won on six occasions, twice at stakes level.
The connection didn’t stop there with Fell selling Eden to Tanner and Lance Hickman as she was nearing the end of her breeding career.
“I knew Lucy loved the mare,” Fell said. “When she was 18, and she hadn’t left a stakes winner at that stage, she had lost her commercial value so I sold her to Lucy very cheaply so she could have a good home and they could have some fun with her.”
As well as keeping a keen eye on Belle Plaisir’s racing career, Fell is equally interested in the success of Rich Hill Stud stallion Proisir who he said matched well with Eden physically.
“Eden wasn’t a robust sort of mare and needed to go to a strong physical stallion,” Fell said. “Proisir definitely suited her physically and was just a bloody good horse. I’m a shareholder in him and it is great to see he is really on the up.
“In the next couple of years I think he could go right to the top of the stallion lists.” -Amie Best, NZTBA
