A TRIO of Group 1 races ranging from 1,200 metres to 3,200 metres highlighted Saturday’s Ellerslie card.

The two-year-olds took the stage for the Group 1 Sistema Stakes and it was the Dundeel gelding Yourdeel that built from his win in the Group 3 Waikato Stud Slipper to improve his record to three wins from five starts. Trained by Jamie Richards and ridden by Opie Bosson, Yourdeel was a NZ$100,000 yearling who had previously been purchased for $30,000 as a weanling.

The Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes at weight-for-age over 2,000 metres saw the clash of New Zealand’s two most in-form horses, the four-year-old Mastercraftsman mare Danzdanzdance – a dual Group 1 winner in December – and Melody Belle, a five-year-old Commands mare and winner, since September, of four Group 1s.

SOFT

In the soft going, the field swung wide on the bend as the race became a two-way battle over the final 300 metres as the mares went head-to-head. With nothing between them, Danzdanzdance got her nose in front before Melody Belle fought back to claim the win by a neck, giving Jamie Richards and Opie Bosson a Group 1 double.

FIGHT

“I saw the grey head [of Danzdanzdance] come up beside me and thought we’re in for a fight here. I thought she might have had me, but my little mare, she just doesn’t know when to lie down,” said Bosson who with his 63rd, broke Lance O’Sullivan’s record of 62 New Zealand Group 1s.

While Melody Belle will now be sent to the paddock with five Group 1s in the bank this season and a tilt for the Cox Plate on her radar in October, Danzdanzdance will head to Sydney.

“We’re very proud of her as it was a huge run,” said trainer Chris Gibbs.”

Bill Thurlow was celebrating the biggest win of his career following the win of his six-year-old mare Glory Days in the Auckland Cup, the final of Ellerslie’s features on Saturday.

“I don’t know what to say, but I think the horse has said it all really,” said Thurlow. “Everything went to plan as we’d planned to get her back and let her relax. I knew it was going to take a very good horse to beat her as she doesn’t know when to stop.”

On top was last season’s leading jockey Sam Collett who remarkably was celebrating her first Group 1 win while adding to some unique family history. “I’ve been trying to keep up with Mum and Dad so to get this is great as I know they quinellaed the race in 1991,” said Collet, the daughter of Jim Collett and Trudy Thornton who fought out the 1991 Auckland Cup on Star Harvest and Shugar respectively.

Glory Days will now target the A$2 million Sydney Cup.