Rain blessing for hopes of a successor to Winx

Looming racetrack idol Melody Belle wins in Hastings on August 31. Photo / File

Hawke's Bay is in full preparation mode for one of New Zealand's biggest horse races, and the emergence of a Kiwi racetrack star as the possible successor to Winx.

It's just two years since the Livamol Classic in Hastings had to be postponed because of rain.

But with fans and now the wider public waiting anticipation of the appearance of race favourite Melody Belle, Hawke's Bay Racing chief executive Andrew Castles has few worries about the prospects for this year's $250,000 race, the only New Zealand race in the World's Top 100 races as determined by the International Federation of Horse Racing Authorities.

With just 13mm of rain in Hastings in the last three weeks, Castles said the Tuesday rain would "just about take care" of the types of issues which caused the 2017 calamity — a track too dangerous for the day's last five races because of drizzle after a dry lead-up.

"We look at a fair few forecasts here," he said. "The best of the forecasts says rain today, clearing on Wednesday, fine on Thursday and Friday, and rain on Saturday... but not till late. Hopefully we'll be all over by then."

There are hopes the appearance of looming racetrack idol Melody Belle will build on the successful rebound of last year when the big race day attracted over 7000 fans and on-course betting turnover of more than $1.1 million, and become one of the biggest horse-racing attractions in Hawke's Bay in more than a decade.

Matamata-trained mare Melody Belle won on the first two days of the Hawke's Bay Spring Racing Carnival on August 31 and September 21, and with the field to be known by late morning on Wednesday is expected to be out to be the first to win all three big races in the Triple Crown.

The Belle was today still an also-unprecedented hot favourite at the TAB, paying $1.30 to win the race, and adding to the glamour appeal is that a win could see Melody Belle set for the $AUD5 million Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in Australia on October as a possible successor to World record-breaking Australian galloper Winx.

The Hastings race has been linked to the Cox Plate for more than two decades, at least since Hawke's Bay Racing set its race at 2040 metres, to match that of the Australian race that Winx last year won for the fourth time in a row. Winx was retired in April after its 33rd consecutive win in a career that earned owners more than $AUD26 million in prizemoney.

The closest any horse has come to claiming the Hawke's Bay triple crown was Queensland invader Starcraft in 2004, running second in the Classic after winning the first two races.

But Melody Belle's even hotter, and Castles said: "I don't remember a favourite as short as $1.30 for a very long time."