Belle Of The Ball

Jet Belle registers a deserved win in the Gold Bracelet

Billed as the clash of the jets, the R350 000 Gr2 Gold Bracelet run over 2000m at Greyville on Saturday did not let enthusiasts down as two top-class daughters of Jet Master went hammer and tongs to the line. In the end, Glen Kotzen and Stuart Randolph had the last laugh in the final Group race of the 2013/14 season.

Kotzen has plugged away in what has been a tough season and the Paarl based conditioner would have been thrilled to end his season on a high – particularly as he trained the runner-up before she was moved to Dennis Drier. The ups and downs of training racehorses!

The race went much according to plan with the chief protagonists in the firing line for much of the contest.

Geoff Woodruff’s beautiful grey Touch The Sky, who eventually started a 2 to 1 favourite, was the first horse beaten at the 300m but the 5 to 2 Jet Aglow and the 9 to 2 Jet Belle took each other on thereafter.

Stuart Randolph exhibited the body language of a man in control the whole way down the home straight and it came as no surprise to see Jet Belle assert herself in the final 200m and draw clear to beat Jet Aglow by 0,75 lengths  in a time of 124,93 secs.

Jet Aglow is a classy consistent runner but may be better over slightly shorter.

The Mike Bass-trained Shingwedzi (also in the Drakenstein silks) ran on well enough to stay on for third- although the Bass yard might have been scratching their heads as she appeared to hamper her diminutive stablemate Supreme Sunset, who managed to hang on for fourth place.

Winning jockey Stuart Randolph labelled Jet Belle ‘a filly full of character and with never a dull moment.’

Kathi Kotzen and Kevin Sommerville lead Jet Belle in

“There are so many people behind the scenes. We must thank the physio too. And it was a good call by Glen to put the blinkers on,” he said.

Trainer Glen Kotzen called the winner an ‘awesome and a proper filly’.

“It is a great pity that we didn’t get a run for our money in the July. But I put on a little pair of scoops here and she was always there. Hopefully we can go back now for a lovely rest before the summer. But she really is a proper filly!” he said.

Jet Belle was bred by Luke Bailes and is by Jet Master out of the seven time winning Ahmed mare, Bella Bianca-interestingly a former Gold Cup winner!

A bargain R275 000 National Yearling Sale graduate, Drakenstein Stud shrewdly bought into her during her racing career and now race her in partnership with her original owner, Colin Bird.

She was trained previously by Robbie Sage in Gauteng.

This was Jet Belle’s second Champions Season success after winning the Gr3 Poinsettia Stakes.

A winner of 5 races (from 1160m to 2000m) with 4 places from 15 starts for stakes of R802 500, Jet Belle will in all likelihood stay in training for another season.