The back story to the good looking O'Reilly filly Babe, who turned plenty of
heads with a courageous win in the opening race on Saturday's programme, makes
fascinating reading and has stud owner Mark Chittick shaking his head as to
just how it has all come about."It is quite a long and involved tale however the gist of it revolves around a long time friend and client in Wayne Kitching," he recalled.
"He had a couple of mares going to our stallions and asked us if we'd like to take a French Deputy mare he had for free. I can't say we really needed any more at that stage but we agreed to take the mare who was La Belle Femme.
"We thought our best bet to get a commercial foal with her was to put her to O'Reilly, which we did, and the resulting filly was Babe."
La Belle Femme was then mated to Pins with the resulting colt, along with his mother, offered by the Stud as part of their unreserved catalogue at the 2015 New Zealand Bloodstock National Weanling and Broodmare Sale.
"We had tried to put the O'Reilly filly through at the yearling sales earlier in the year with Highview Stud but she had x-rayed badly and ended up being passed in," explained Chittick.
"Her mother walked into the ring at the May sale, paraded for a couple of laps and went out again without attracting a bid while her colt went for $1,000.
"We thought we would be taking her home but a deal came through and we ended up selling the mare later on for just $100 but we still had the filly."
After going through an initial two-year-old preparation Chittick was looking around for an opportunity to lease the filly out for her racing career when fate provided another twist to the tale.
"One of the trainer's we often lease horses to was looking around for a replacement for a client and asked us if the filly was available and what her pedigree looked like," noted Chittick.
"It was at that stage that we printed out her extended pedigree for the first time and got a hell of a surprise. It turns out that her dam, La Belle Femme, is a half sister to an unraced Hussonet mare who is the dam of Extreme Choice who won the Blue Diamond Stakes this year and had started one of the favourites for the Golden Slipper.
"It's fair to say we got a hell of a shock and the decision to perhaps keep her and race her ourselves was taken.
"For her to come out and do what she did on Saturday is just marvelous and if she can go on with it then everyone involved has got a hell of a bargain." – NZ Racing Desk
