Bellafina Breeder Hooked on Quality

Juvenile filly Bellafina, already a dual grade 1 winner thanks to scores in the Sept. 1 Del Mar Debutante Stakes and Sept. 29 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita Park, has hooked the imagination of those in racing. Her breeder, Lexingtonian Joe Minor, was hooked on her sire Quality Road .

The well-muscled bay filly out of Akron Moon, by Malibu Moon , made short work of her Chandelier foes, winning by 6 1/2 lengths, setting her up to be the favorite for the Nov. 2 Tito's Handmade Vodka Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Churchill Downs. Raced by Kaleem Shah, she is trained by Simon Callaghan.

Quality Road, who stands at Lane's End Farm, was the leading first-crop sire of 2014 thanks to top earners Hootenanny  and Blofeld . Minor and Greathouse Properties purchased Blofeld for $225,000 at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton Florida Sale from Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables. The colt won the grade 2 Futurity and Nashua stakes later that year and added the Gulfstream Park Handicap (G2) at 4 in 2016.

This year Quality Road boasts five grade 1 winners. Joining Bellafina are City of Light , Abel Tasman, Salty, and Spring Quality.

"I bought quite a few mares later that year, including Akron Moon, that were in foal to Quality Road," Minor said.

Bred and raced by Robert "Shel" Evans, the stakes-placed Akron Moon was purchased for $175,000 from Evans, with Sweezey and Partners, as agent, at the 2014 Keeneland November sale.

The first foal, Diamond King, was sold for $55,000 as a yearling, then $235,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old. The two-time stakes winner ran in the Preakness Stakes (G1) and was just beaten two noses in the Sept. 30 Oklahoma Derby (G3). The second was Bellafina.

Failing to meet her reserve last fall at Keeneland, Minor placed her with Dunne, who prepared her for the Fasig-Tipton sale. Her pre-sale breeze was :10 flat and she sold for $800,000, the seventh highest-price of the auction.

"I always thought Diamond King as a nice, athletic horse, but Bellafina ... I loved her from the time she was a foal," Minor said. "At the sale ... she looked the part of a racehorse. I came over to the sale three or four hours before and I guess (agent) Ben McElroy, Simon Callaghan, and Kaleem Shah probably came by three times.

"She was on a lot of people's list, they just happened to be the last ones to bid on her," he said. "She's in good hands and Simon has done a great job with her. Thanks to Kaleem Shah for stepping up and paying $800,000 for her. That's a lot of money."

Minor will have a lot of rooting interests in the coming weeks. Besides Bellafina, he bred and sold Achilles Warrior, who is scheduled to start in the Oct. 6 Champagne Stakes (G1), Indiana Oaks (G3) winner Talk Veuve to Me, and pinhooked Dream Tree, slated for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1).