Hard to part with Oaks winner

BY TIM BARTON

New Zealand Oaks winner Keep The Peace has forced part-owner Paul Bellingham to change the habit of a lifetime.

Bellingham has always been a horse trader, rather than a keeper, but is finding it difficult to part with Keep The Peace.

Which is why he talked his fellow owner, former champion jockey Mick Dittman, into turning down a seven-figure offer for the filly last week.

"There was a very serious buyer, from Melbourne, who was ringing every day," Bellingham said after Keep The Peace held off November Rain and Zarzuela in the $300,000 Group I Oaks at Trentham on Saturday.

"Mick wanted to sell but I said that that if the filly was sold, I would never talk to him again."

Bellingham, who has made a living as a professional punter, rarely gets too attached to individual horses but has made an exception with Keep The Peace. "I love this filly and think she's something special."

However, Bellingham, 67, admits that there is likely to be a stage when the offers for Keep The Peace reach a level he will be unable to resist. "Everything is for sale at a price."

But he is also convinced that the Keeper filly will develop further as a four-year-old and can be competitive in races like the Cox Plate and Caulfield Cup in the spring.

"Four-year-old mares have a good record in the Caulfield Cup and I think she would be a great Cox Plate horse. The Cox suits horses who get back and swoop and she's got that big turn of foot."

Bellingham and Dittman, who have been friends and business partners for years, buy numerous horses in New Zealand, usually on behalf of Hong Kong owners or with the aim of on-selling to Asia.

Bellingham, a New Zealander who now lives on the Gold Coast, gets videos of every New Zealand thoroughbred trial and selected Keep The Peace after she had finished second-last in an eight-horse trial at Pukekohe last autumn, when trained by Andrew Scott.

"I thought she had a great action. I loved her action and she came from a good stable," Bellingham said. In addition, she was a cheap buy. "Not a lot," was Bellingham's description of the price.

Bellingham buys the majority of his horses in New Zealand, rather than Australia. "We get most of them here. We find they are stronger horses and more suited to filling orders for Hong Kong.

"Not all of them come from the trials and we bought Thumbs Up and Best Gift as raced horses."

Bellingham, who was based in Hong Kong for 10 years, describes himself as a retired professional gambler but had a "substantial bet" on Keep The Peace in the Oaks.

"I've been a punter all my life and still have a bet. But I wasn't confident [with Keep The Peace.] I think Zarzuela is a super filly and she had drawn the inside barrer while we were wide out.

"But Opie [Bosson] rode out filly exactly the way I wanted him to."

While Bellingham was at Trentham on Saturday, Dittman, whose son, Luke, is also a part-owner, watched the Oaks from Singapore and was on the phone to Bellingham "as soon as they passed the post."

Luke Dittman, who has ridden as an apprentice in New Zealand and Australia, is attempting to launch a riding career in Europe and is working for top English trainer Luca Cumani.

- © Fairfax NZ News