"When I look in the mirror, we're almost the same colour," jokes Bell.
The white coat covers a still impressive engine but one better suited to races Helena Baby can roll into rather than straight-out sprints, so Bell will allow him to miss the Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa in two weeks.
"The 1200m is too sharp for him, so we'll give him a week off and freshen him up for the Tarzino [1400m, September 10] and then the other two legs of the Triple Crown."
That means extending Helena Baby out to 2040m for the Livamol but Bell says his former rider Donavan Mansour, now retired because of injury, has always been adamant Helena Baby will get 2000m.
Helena Baby's odds for the Hawke's Bay triple crown races go up as the distances increase: he is $21 for the Tarzino, $31 for the Arrowfield Stud Plate and $61 for the Livamol.
One star Helena Baby won't meet in the Tarzino is Entriviere, who will miss the rest of the spring.
Trainer Mark Walker thinks the speed freak mare has not come up as well as hoped, not uncommon for mares in the spring, and she will have a short spell.
"We'll then aim her at the summer, with her first big target being the Railway," he says of the Group 1 Entriviere won last summer.
The Railway for 2023 will be run at Te Rapa, who hold the massive New Year's Day meeting with Ellerslie closed for renovations.
Saving the steeples
West Coast jogged to victory in the $100,000 Grand National Steeples at Riccarton but let's hope he gets a chance to defend his title next season.
The jumping races at the carnival only just got off the ground, with the Steeples attracting just five starters, and with no local jumps racing to support it, you could argue against the economic viability of every jumper at the meeting having to across Cook Strait to get there.
That doesn't mean the Grand Nationals have to disappear, they could always move to a North Island track, but for all its geographical challenges, Canterbury still feels like home to the once iconic races.
Riccarton had no luck this year, with several key trainers and horses missing from the week, but unless significant travel subsidies or lead-up races in the region can be provided, it is hard to see how the Nationals stay at their historic home.
Here they come
Punters and breeders may have got a sneak preview for the remainder of the season when Manzoice won at Rosehill on Saturday. The colt beat some promising rivals and is one of the first 3-year-old winners in the Southern Hemisphere for Cambridge Stud's Almanzor.
Almanzor has been enormously popular at the yearling sales and produced last season's Karaka Million winner Dynastic, but with the stallion having been a champion 3-year-old, that is when his stock are expected to really show their worth.
It is early in the season but Saturday winners in Sydney make an impression and expect Manzoice to be one of an army of 3-year-old winners by Almanzor this season.
