Tuesday night at Gloucester Park saw the running of heats for the 2025 WA Sales Classics with the $125,000 finals for each sex scheduled for Friday 28 February.
The first of two heats for fillies saw two daughters of first season sire Bettors Wish make their debut and in a dream result for the son of Bettors Delight they quinellaed the heat.
Wishing Belle scored by the barest possible margin of a short half-head for trainer/driver Aiden De Campo from the Ryan Bell trained Ma Petite Dame rating 1:58.3 for the 1730 metres.
Wishing Belle is out of former outstanding WA race-mare Libertybelle Midfrew which won 19 races and $640,497 including a Group One WA Oaks and Group One 4yo Golden Nugget Championship when she beat the boys at the top level.
Wishing Belle is Bettors Wish’s first Australian winner from his first Australasian crop and comes close on the heels of his first New Zealand 2yo winner Angelic Copy which won at Auckland on February 7.
This Sunday at the Nutrien Sunshine Stars Yearling Sale in Brisbane there is a filly by Bettors Wish being offered by LJ and ME Vagg as Lot 34.
Lot 34 is a half-sister to last season’s 2yo winner Victree Charlie which took a record of 1:56.6 and is by another son of Bettors Delight in Betting Line.
The dam of Lot 34 is the Art Major mare Im Sugar Coated whose grand-dam is the 2001 Australian 2yo Filly of the Year Espeshlimade Lombo.
Coincidentally, one of the 2yo colts WA Sales Classic heats last night was impressively won by Fear The Storm whose dam is a half-sister to Espeshlimade Lombo.
Fear The Storm is a son of The Storm Inside which is the sire of Lot 92 in the Sunshine Stars catalogue and is part of the Burwood Stud draft.
There is a second yearling by Bettors Wish in the Sunshine Stars catalogue in the form of Lot 72 which a colt from the Rob Roy Mattgregor mare Rapid Di.
Being offered by Baring Bloodstock, Lot 72’s dam Rapid Di is a lightly raced half-sister to the dam of Shepparton Gold Cup winner Im Pats Delight which won 12 races and $296,100.