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Last foal of breeding barn star debuts at Doomben

21 January 2020

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By Glenn Davis

Another chapter in one of the State’s most successful breeding stories begins when Bellissimi Amici makes her debut in the QTIS Two-Year-Old Maiden Handicap at Doomben on Thursday.

Bellissimi Amici, a Ryan Maloney mount, is a daughter of Rothesay from the prolific broodmare Cantantes making her a full sister to stablemate Guntantes.

The Rob Heathcote-trained Guntantes is one of the State’s top three-year-olds having won five of his 12 starts and is currently spelling ahead of a Brisbane winter campaign.

Cantantes was one of the State’s top broodmares before she had to be euthansed in 2018 after producing a string of winners including the promising Guntantes.

“Bellissimi Amici is a very nice filly but is more a get back type,” Heathcote said.

“She’s got plenty of ability but she’s only had one trial and this is first-up over 1200 metres.

“She’s the last foal from Cantantes and her name means Beautiful Friends in Italian.”

Cantantes’ best performer was Funtantes, who like Bellissimi Amici was also trained by Heathcote who followed a winning treble at Eagle Farm last Saturday with a Sunshine Coast double on Sunday.

Funtantes, a son of Easy Rocking, was a great money spinner for Heathcote winning 10 of her 50 starts including the Group 2 Champagne Classic and Listed wins in the Juanmo and Nudgee Stakes.

As well as Funtantes, Cantantes also produced Excellantes who Heathcote also trained.

Excellantes was a son of former dual Group 1 winner Falvelon and won 12 of his 54 starts including three wins at Listed level.

Bellissimi Amici will face stablemate Jellishot who resumes after finishing sixth in her debut behind Spirit One at Eagle Farm in October.

Heathcote will keep a close watch on the weather with Doomben rated a soft 7 at acceptance time.

“At this stage they’ll both run but there’s a bit of rain still hanging around,” he said.

“But like a lot of horses in Queensland at the moment, they haven’t seen rain for a long time.

“If we get much more rain, I’ll flip a coin before deciding if they run.”

Heathcote also had a good opinion of Jellishot.

“Jellishot was very green at her first start so I tipped her out straight away but she’s a Spirit Of Boom filly with above average ability,” he said.

“I probably just favour Jellishot as she’s more of an on speed type of filly.”

Racing Queensland webnews     January 21