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A look into the background of the first mare to win The Everest.
Mares have been Australian racing's biggest stars in the 21st century, but the one mountain the girls had failed to climb was our richest race of all – The Everest.
Until last Saturday, that is.
Bella Nipotina etched her name into history when she became the first female horse to win the $20 million event in the first year it carried Group 1 status.
She did so as a seven-year-old at her 55th trip to the races and her victory catapulted her sire, Pride Of Dubai, to the head of the Australian Champion Stallion table.
Along with Pride Of Jenni, Bella Nipotina is a member of the first crop of that son of Street Cry, who was the first mate for Star Witness mare Bella Orfana, who only had six starts, the best of which was a second placing in a 1300m Geelong maiden.
Bella Orfana is a three-quarter-sister to Group 2 winner Hallowell Belle (Starcraft) and a half-sister to Group 3 winner Fuddle Dee Duddle (Red Ransom) and counts Caulfield Guineas winner In Top Swing a part of the family with her dam Bella Inez (Beautiful Crown) a sister to the 2033 Guineas champ.
Bella Nipotina was an $80,000 buy at the 2019 Inglis Premier Sale and started her racing career under the Lindsay Park banner back when David Hayes still headed up the training team.
She had her first 17 starts for Lindsay Park, with whom she only won one race – the Group 3 Quezette Stakes (1100m) – before joining Ciaron Maher and David Eustace towards the end of the 2020/21 season.
Bella Nipotina has won a further nine races for Maher with three other Group 1 wins – 2022 Manikato Stakes (1200m), 2024 Doomben 10,000 (1200m) and 2024 Tatt's Tiara (1400m) – preceding Saturday's success.
Those 10 wins and 25 minor placings have seen her amass $18,811,624 in stakes, which ranks her second to Winx ($26,451,175) and Nature Strip ($20,755,008) on the list of Australian racing's all-time money-earners.
Bella Orfana's second foal Bella Sorellina won three of 10 and her only other to race has been Quello Dorato, who has had two starts for Danny O'Brien and finished third both times.
She was not served in 2020, missed to Zoustar in 2021 and also had a failed trip to Zoustar in 2022 before subsequently getting in-foal to Trapeze Artist and last year delivered a filly.
That filly will forever be her final foal after Bella Orfana succumbed to a battle with cancer earlier this year.