Darling View homebred Bells Tower looked an exciting prospect on debut at Ascot on Wednesday.
Bells Tower was the first-leg of a double for Darling View Thoroughbreds owners Clive Atwell, his wife Trish and son Brent who race him in partnership with Peter and Jan Bosci.
The Atwells cheered home another winner later in the day when their stallion Patronize sired Silver Speck to a first-up victory in Perth.
Bells Tower (3g Statue Of Liberty – Magical Belle by Blackfriars) railed up to defeat front-runner You Will Be Queen (Kaphero) in a hectic finish to the Westspeed 3YO Hcp (1000m). No more than a half-length covered the first four home.
He will improve out of sight with that run under his belt,” trainer Jim Taylor predicted. “He got a decent bump just after the start and to pick himself up and win proves he’s a pretty good horse.”
Taylor admitted the gelding has a fiery temperament to go with a strong constitution.
He did about three miles this morning – I wanted to take the edge off him so that he wouldn’t come here and do something wrong.”
Taylor trained his dam Magical Belle and she won four races at Belmont for the Atwell and Bosci families. She broke down in the 2008 LR Jungle Dawn Classic and Taylor’s suggested Statue Of Liberty as a suitable stallion.
Hay List is by Statue Of Liberty and, at that stage, he was still with Taylor and showing all the hallmarks of a top-class sprinter.
Clive Atwell and Jan Bosci are cousins and they’ve been racing horses for 30 years starting with Devils Duchess who won races around Perth and the provincials when trained by Jim’s mother Lois Taylor.
Magical Belle has a yearling filly by Patronize and foaled another filly by him in October but is empty this year. Her full sister Bellissimo Babe is in foal to Statue of Liberty.
Patronize (Redoute’s Choice) stands for a $4,400 (inc gst) service fee and his grey gelding Silver Speck is heading for black-type company after a first-up victory in the Stihl Hcp (1000m) on Wednesday.
Silver Speck (4g Patronize – Lacy Knickers by Kingdom’s Dynasty) completed a hat-trick at Pinjarra and Belmont (2) before going for a winter break. “We nearly lost him when he came back into work,” trainer Adam Durrant said.
I thought he had broken a shoulder and we just about had to carry him on to the truck to the vets. I feared the worst but they reckoned it was a pinched nerve.
“He came home and was back to normal in two days! I think he’s a horse going places and there’s a nice race for him here on New Year’s Day.”
Patronize (Redoute’s Choice) is a three-quarter brother to Exceed And Excel and he stands alongside G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Econsul (NZ) at Darling View.
