If she is not the Zenyatta of South America, she’s the next best thing to it. Reigning Chilean Horse of the Year Belle Watling
isn’t unbeaten, but she has staked a claim to the title of the best
horse in South America with her determined victory in the Gran Premio
Asociacion Latinoamericana de Jockey Clubes e Hipodromos (Chi-I), a
race that brings the continent’s best horses together at weight-for-age
as it rotates between the major tracks of South America’s racing
nations.
While this year’s renewal was held on Belle Watling’s home ground,
this should not diminish her dramatic victory, which saw the first four
finishers separated by two heads and a half-length. The first racehorse
of either sex to sweep Club Hipico de Santiago’s Quadruple Crown
series, Belle Watling is also only the second filly or mare to win the
Latinoamericano, following in the hoof prints of multiple Peruvian
champion Madame Equis in 1999.
Racing in the colors of Stud Don Theo, Belle Watling was bred by
Haras Matancilla and was sired by multiple English group II winner
Dushyantor, a Sadler’s Wells half brother to English champion miler and
successful sire Warning. Only modestly successful in Ireland,
Dushyantor has fared much better in Chile, where he has led the general
sire list for the last three years. He is one of several sons of
Sadler’s Wells to have found success in the Southern Hemisphere, along
with late-1990s South African leading sire Fort Wood; Crimson Tide;
twice ranked among Brazil’s top 10 sires; and Scenic, who has ranked
among the top 20 Australian sires for the past five years. The
last-named stallion is closely related to Dushyantor as his dam,
Idyllic (by Foolish Pleasure), is a half sister to Dushyantor’s dam,
Slightly Dangerous (by Roberto).
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