Brilliant Belle, a 4-year old bay daughter of Afleet Alex, is the first runner for the 2017 Club!
Claimed out of the 5th race at Oaklawn today by trainer Nevada Litfin for $7500, she finished a solid 2nd place after stalking the speed mid-pack in the 6 furlong affair finishing well in her 2nd start off a short layoff. We won a 2-way shake for her as there was one other claim slip dropped.
In her short career she has run 13 times, winning twice and now finishing in the money for the 8th time. She broke her maiden at Keeneland in a $20,000 maiden claimer and notched her second win in a $30,000 non-winners of two claiming race at Churchill last June.
Nevada will get her back to the barn, cool her out and we’ll see how she’s doing in a few days and plan her first start for us – be it at Oaklawn or opening weekend here at home (if we can get in).
I will post her lifetime past performances either later this evening or tomorrow so you can all peruse.
Congratulations and Good Luck to us all!
Canterbury Racing Club 
? If she was doing that well in 20 and 30,000 races how did she end up in a $7500 claim?
Something we may never know. She may have been injured. She may have been an early developer and didn’t mature. She could be goofy mentally. We may have an idea in a week or so after we get her in the barn. For our purposes, as long as she is physically sound and useful between 7500 – 12,500 we’re in good shape! If she ends up being better than that, it will be a bonus. Nevada checked around – the best you can when claiming a horse – and gave her a good going over (visually) when she came over for the race to do as much due diligence as one can.
Welcome to BB! I’m sure she’ll thrive here. As for the drop in claim price, Ted might be right: we’ll see. But then, you could have had Seattle Slew for $17,500 in 1975…. 🙂
Will you try to enter her higher than $7500 since claimed 2 in a row at that price?
We’re not ready yet to determine where she belongs yet. It could be that we will wait until Canterbury with only a few weeks left in the Oaklawn season. Generally the risk of a claim is not a deterrant to entering a race. Horses need to run where they belong and can be competitive. You can run not to get claimed but you’ll also never win a race. That said, we also want a horse to start the season with so we may wait depending upon what we see over the next week or two.
Welcome to the Club, BB! I’m sure she’ll thrive here. Her sire was quite the athlete. As for the drop in claiming price, Ted is right: we may never know. But she’s only 4 yrs old. Then again, you could have had Seattle Slew for $17,500 in 1975……
We look forward to Brilliant Belle coming north and having a good season for the club. The $20-30,000 claiming prices were for non winners of 2 races. Lots of times inflated when compared to an open claiming race where most horses have won more than three races. So looking forward to the 2017 season!
Ted, can you see if Nevada can snap a couple of photos and send them along? I’m sure everyone would like to see what she looks like.
Already did. We should have some in a day or two.
So excited to get this year off soooooo early!! Can hardly wait!! Will she race at Oaklawn for us before she comes here?
Is Clay looking, too??
We don’t know if she’ll go at Oaklawn. There is only a few weeks left in the meet. If she’s up to it we may, but we’d also like to bring her back to Canterbury and run her here.
Here is a race replay from Oaklawn so everyone can see her run. Welcome to the barn Brilliant Belle!
I know this is jumping the gun on detailed horse questions, but I would like a post on pedigree down the line. I am looking and BB is of Afleet Alex & Accept. Both horses had success at a mile, mile 1/4 and Afleet Alex even won the Belmont at a mile 1/2. Why has BB run her entire career at 6 or so furlongs? I see a few at 7F and a few at 5F. Why was she never stretched out as a 3 year old to see how she might do around 2 turns?
Obviously I can’t speak to any certainty involving the methods or decision making of the previous owners but I can talk a little in general. Pedigree is nice and it is important but once a horse starts training, the trainers have an eye and a feel for what the horse can accomplish and, eventually, they become what they are regardless of pedigree. She didn’t start until 3 and she ran a couple of times at 6 furlongs before breaking her maiden at 7 furlongs. After that the only time she went further than 6 was a solid effort at 6.5 and a complete disaster at a mile where she was competitive but faded very badly in the second half of the race. It could be that no one has seen anything concrete to lead them to believe that she should be a router and the one time she tried a mile she was severely beaten so trainers/owners retreated back to her comfort zone sprinting. It does appear that she should really like the 6.5 furlong races at Canterbury but we’ll let Nevada work with her and determine what she can accomplish. She’s still a young and developing horse so we’ll see!
Looking forward to her first Canterbury race.