Cover image courtesy of Kenton Wright (Race Images)
As the 2-year-old season begins to heat up on both sides of the Tasman, attention turns to which of the early performers can go on to claim glory in some of the valuable Group 1s on offer over the second half of the season.
One filly that has put her hand up to be involved is Bellatrix Star (Star Witness), who powered home to take out the G2 Eclipse S. at Pukekohe on Monday over 1200 metres.
With the filly now a 2-year-old Group 2 winner, the sky looks to be the limit for her, with a valuable future now assured in the barn, and the quality on display to suggest she has more wins in store for her on the track. Ahead of a busy 2024, The Thoroughbred Report caught up with Fortuna Racing owner John Galvin, to see what’s next for Bellatrix Star, and his business.
Star may follow Belle’s hoofsteps
Even those with a cursory interest in racing over the last decade will recognise the name Melody Belle (NZ) (Commands), the sensational mare owned by Fortuna Racing who won 19 of her 41 starts, including the New Zealand Triple Crown alongside an incredible 14 Group 1 successes.
Melody Belle (NZ) | Image courtesy of Race Images
Inarguably the most recognisable Fortuna Racing-owned horse, Melody Belle was an elite 2-year-old performer, winning the R. Listed Karaka Millions 2YO on the way to winning the G1 Sires’ Produce S. at Manawatu.
Galvin is hopeful that Bellatrix Star can follow the lead of the champion mare, who sold for $2.6 million at the 2021 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale and become a leading 2-year-old over the coming months.
“If you look at the Te Akau-trained 2-year-olds over recent years, Melody Belle was probably the flag-bearer, after winning the Karaka Millions she bypassed the (G1) Diamond S. at Ellerslie and went to the Group 1 1400-metre Manawatu Sires’ Produce S., and of course she won that,” he explained.
John Galvin | Image courtesy of NZ Racing Desk
“Since Melody Belle seven years ago, Fortuna has not had a 2-year-old run in Group races, but Te Akau, who are our trainers, have had many, and so their pathways after their horses have won the Karaka Millions have always been to contest the Group 1 races in New Zealand, so it would be no different for Bellatrix Star.”
Large ownership group enjoying the ride
Galvin isn’t the only one invested in the ascent of Bellatrix Star, with a burgeoning group of owners taking a slice of the pie.
“Her ownership group is a bit larger than typical,” he explained. “For example, with Melody Belle, we had 34 owners as individuals, and with this one (Bellatrix Star) we’ve got 69.
“Her ownership group is a bit larger than typical. For example, with Melody Belle, we had 34 owners as individuals, and with this one (Bellatrix Star) we’ve got 69.” - John Galvin
“A typical syndicate for us is about 40 to 50, so she’s a bit larger than normal, and that’s because we’ve got 26 individual owners who have taken one per cent each.
“We like to accommodate everybody in the marketplace, so we do shares right down to one per cent, so with her in particular we seem to have a lot of people that came in at one per cent, which is why the ownership group is so large.”
In a crowded marketplace, one operated in by royalty and micro-share syndicators alike, points of difference can be tricky to obtain, but worth their weight in gold. Galvin seems to have found a valuable niche for the Fortuna Racing operation, with a model that has allowed his business to consistently bring in new clients.
“We’ve been doing shares down to one per cent now for probably seven or eight years, and we started syndicating in 2007, so we’ve been going a long time. Since we started offering one per cent shares, we’ve effectively doubled our client base.
“Since we started offering one per cent shares, we’ve effectively doubled our client base.” - John Galvin
“I’m a great believer in trying to get as many people as I can involved in thoroughbred racing, that’s always been a mission of mine, and the fact we do offer one per cent shares, (it helps) in terms of achieving that objective of getting more people involved, and it certainly hasn’t done our business any harm. We’ve got people who take small shares like one or two per cent who come into multiple syndicates, so they’ve always got something happening all the time because they’re in 10 or 12 or 14 different horses with us.”
Close ties to Te Akau supremo
Te Akau Racing have played an integral part of the Fortuna story, with a longstanding relationship between Galvin and David Ellis propelling both men to collaborative success over a period of decades.
“David and I go back to 2002,” Galvin explained. “I instructed him to buy me a couple of yearlings for me personally, we weren’t syndicating at the time, from the 2003 (New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling) Sale.
David Ellis | Image courtesy of Trish Dunell
“We did buy a couple, including a really smart 2-year-old filly called Kapsdan who did win a Group 2 race as well (the G2 Challenge S.).
“Subsequent to that, I took a five per cent share in Darci Brahma, that David had bought at the 2004 sale, and that was a great story with his race record plus (him becoming) a very successful stallion at stud.
“After that, in 2007, I formed Fortuna Racing and set it up as a syndication company. When we got authorised and approved to be official syndicators, David and his trainers, who at the time was Mark Walker, who still is, but he went to Singapore, Jamie Richards filled the gap for a few years and also Marcus Corbin were my selection team.
Darci Brahma (NZ)
“We always buy to a budget, so I’m saying to them as selectors, ‘This is the type of horse I want to buy’, be it at a 2-year-old Karaka Millions type or more of a staying, middle-distance type, and I set the budget.
“So with Bellaxtrix Star, the instructions to my team were to find me a filly that has the potential to be a Karaka Millions type. They needed to have a really nice pedigree page, but especially with a bit of Australian speed blood in there, and the budget was NZ$120,000.
“They picked her up, early in the sale (Lot 20), and we only had to pay NZ$80,000 for her, so we got the horse we wanted for two thirds of the budget, you can’t ask for much more than that.”
“They picked her (Bellatrix Star) up, early in the sale (Lot 20), and we only had to pay NZ$80,000 for her, so we got the horse we wanted for two thirds of the budget, you can’t ask for much more than that.” - John Galvin
Fortuna to scour the globe for next superstar
While it would be fair to say that 2024 couldn’t have gotten off to a better start for Fortuna Racing, the most important time for a syndication company is rapidly approaching, with the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale less than a week away, opening a frenetic period of the calendar where everyone is looking for the same thing, a champion.
Galvin is no exception, with January offering plenty of opportunity to add more stock to his offerings, across both Australia and New Zealand.
“Typically, in a given year, we buy 12 or so yearlings, and we always buy at the Gold Coast Sale in January,” he explained.
Fortuna Racing plan to be active at the upcoming Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“So we’ve got a smart 3-year-old racing in Victoria called Rubicon Crossing, who won her first race at Mornington back in September, she’s a Magic Millions graduate, and we bought a really nice Super Seth filly at last year’s sale (Lot 772, which was bought for $110,000).
“So we’ll definitely be buying a filly there, and then we’ll turn our attention to the Karaka Sale, where we generally buy two or three, including a Karaka Millions type.
“We’re really big on fillies, we like to buy them because they’ve got that residual value, and we always look to buy a nice staying filly or two, so that will be the plan for yearling purchases. We recently bought a Contributer filly at the (New Zealand Bloodstock) Ready to Run Sale, Contributer is going really well as a sire of staying types, Campionessa is carrying the flag for him.
“We’re really big on fillies, we like to buy them because they’ve got that residual value, and we always look to buy a nice staying filly or two...” - John Galvin
“In the last couple of years, we’ve also bought horses at the Tattersalls Breeze Up Sales in the United Kingdom, we’ve left them with Harry Eustace over there at Newmarket for their 2-year-old years, and then we plan to bring them down to Australia.”
