Images courtesy of Matt Vella
Vella, who has broken in more than 10 Group 1 winners, educated the Group-winning pair of Dame Giselle (I Am Invincible) and Mildred (Hinchinbrook) and the stakes performer Muntaseera (I Am Invincible).
The one-time Golden Slipper favourite Cellsabeel (Hinchinbrook) also went through Vella system, but she was unfortunately withdrawn on Thursday by trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace after she was found to be less than 100 per cent following her final gallop.
It still leaves Vella in a unique position and he offered his insights to TDN AusNZ into the early development and impressions the fillies made on him.
“We had the four of them and they went through the system and then they came back to me for pre-training before they went off to the trainers,” he said.
A favourite is the Peter and Paul Snowden-prepared Dame Giselle as the last-start G2 Reisling S. winner was bred by the China Horse Club, who race the filly with Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock Australia.
“I started this breaking in business when I was 17. I’m 28 now and Owen Glenn has been a client of mine for four or five years,” Vella said.
“I started this breaking in business when I was 17. I’m 28 now and Owen Glenn has been a client of mine for four or five years.” - Matt Vella
“After a couple of years he asked me about going in together if he bought me a facility of my choice and that’s how it’s played out and we’re been going strongly ever since. I’ve broken in a lot of good horses for him and I still have all my own clients as well.”
The property named Glenn Haven Horse Farm, formerly occupied by trainer Tony McEvoy when he operated a New South Wales satellite stable, adjoins the Hawkesbury racecourse with Vella also training from the complex.
“I’d love to see any of the three win the Slipper and if Dame Giselle could get over the line it would be special for Owen Glenn and the China Horse Club as I do a lot of work for them as well,” Vella said.
“Dame Giselle was the best horse I broke in last year. She was very, very smart from day one and had everything you would want in a horse and did everything right.
“She was just brilliant and the one in my eyes that was always going to be the one. She was very straight forward and a big, strong filly and will go on with it as a 3-year-old.
“She was very straight forward and a big, strong filly and will go on with it as a 3-year-old.” – Matt Vella
“The first time I handled her I knew she was a good filly and some horses just have that presence about them and she did. She was just literally amazing.”
Trained by Grahame Begg for his father Neville and partners, Mildred has won three of her six starts, including the G3 Chairman’s S., and finished third in the G2 Reisling S. last time out.
Carmel Size, Classique Legend and Matt Vella
“I broke her in for Neville Begg who’s a very, very good supporters of mine and a mentor obviously having been a great trainer and the legend that he is,” Vella said. “One of his daughters, Carmel Size, who manages all the Legend horses, is like a Mum to me.
“When I was breaking the filly in I rang Neville and said she’s not very big, but she will be smart early. I educated her for two preps and got her going and told Grahame she’d be an early type.
“I got her to the gallop stage and she was very forward. She was a very straight forward filly, very strong and tough and I expected her to get to where she has. You get a feel for what they need and she had the mentality to be good early.”
“She was a very straight forward filly, very strong and tough and I expected her to get to where she has.” – Matt Vella
Trained by Maher and Eustace, Muntaseera is raced by her breeder Sheikh Mohammad Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum and has won once from five outings and most recently finished second in the G3 Thoroughbred Breeders’ S.
“Muntaseera was one of the first I breakers I did last year in January and she was very small then. She was very good and like Mildred, just straight forward,” Vella said.
“She didn’t have an overly big action, but she was very strong, compact and tenacious. I liked her a lot and I said to Ciaron she would go early and she has.”
Matt with Covent garden the half-sister to Winx
Unfortunately, stablemate Cellsabeel hasn’t made it to the Slipper but showed her talent with one win from four starts in her first preparation and placed in the G3 Black Opal S.
“She was straight forward and I did like her. She has surprised me a little bit as I initially thought she’d be a later 2-year-old and early 3-year-old type of filly,” Vella said.
“She got under my guard a bit and she was a lovely, big and strong horse and very feisty early on. She copped a bit of work and handled it all very easily.”
