The second and most comprehensive of those was the $200,000 Windsor Park Plate at Hastings on Saturday where the Jamie Richards-trained mare made a mockery of concerns over her ability to run 1600m.
Aided by the inside draw and an aggressively efficient Shafiq Rusof ride, she had her rivals covered at the top of the straight, with Savvy Coup suggesting the Livamol Classic in two weeks is hers to lose with a booming second.
The win continued an unbeaten start to the season for Melody Belle after also taking the group one Tarzino Trophy and the group two Foxbridge Plate.
So already she has a seasonal CV worthy of many recent Horse of the Year winners and has an array of group one options on her summer menu.
Now she can successfully extend out to 1600m she has targets ranging from her main summer aims of the Railway and Telegraph through the 1400m group ones in February and beyond, although Richards has already ruled out trying to extend out to 2040m for the Livamol.
Victory in any of the summer sprints would make Melody Belle, a mere $57,500 Karaka purchase, awfully hard to catch for the Horse of the Year title, with the obvious threat being any Kiwi galloper who could win at least one group one in Australia, maybe two.
A lot can happen in the next 10 months but regardless of who claims racing's most illustrious title Melody Belle has added enormously to her broodmare value with her sensational spring.
"She has had some good draws but you still need the horse power to take advantage of them and she has given herself a lot of options now," said Richards.
The only downside to Melody Belle's group treble to start the season is her rating which means she might struggle to find easy lead up races to the Railway. "She might just have a couple of trials leading into that."
Her win capped a near perfect day for Te Akau with Avantage returning with a brave win in the Gold Trail Stakes after Xpression looked certain to run past her at the 200m mark.
"That is what the good horse can do, find a way to win," enthused Richards.
Just as happy with the double will be New Zealand Bloodstock as both Melody Belle and Avantage are Karaka Million winners who are now racing on at the highest level, which has not always been the case with the winners of New Zealand's richest juvenile dash.
Avantage's win in the hands of Danielle Johnson saw her take a clear edge over Melt in the TAB market for the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton, with Richards suggesting her next start could be at Ellerslie's comeback meeting on October 27, with her exact path to be plotted in a meeting today.
The 1000 Guineas is shaping as the race of the spring but Richards says Avantage won't be taking the potentially easier and more lucrative option of the $500,000 2000 Guineas a week earlier against a male crop without the star power of the flying fillies.
"It will be the 1000 Guineas, the filly of the year races and the Karaka Classic Mile for her and then, all going well, Australia in the autumn.
"While 1600m would look her distance at the moment, we are not ruling out her getting 2000m later in the season because she is out of a Zabeel mare."
