Jay Bee Gee brings famous lines together

Two families steeped in New Zealand racing history and one of the most famous families in the Stud Book combined for victory in the Gr. 3 CJC Winning Edge Presentations Winter Cup last Saturday.
Very rarely does a racing season go by without a stakes winner from the amazing Belle family popping up, and it happened in the very first feature flat race of the new term when Jay Bee Gee prevailed in a tight finish over Freeze Frame and Bradman. Jay Bee Gee’s sixth dam is Annie Sarten’s influential broodmare Belle Rosa, the third foal of the Sartens’ foundation mare Belle Fox and dam of the mighty Star Belle.
Jay Bee Gee is trained at Hunterville by Adrian Bull and raced by him and his son Harry and the estate of his late wife Robyn, who sadly passed away late last year. The Bull stable had previously had success with Jay Bee Gee’s half- brother William Wallace.
Adrian Bull’s great-great-grandfather James, for whom the Listed James Bull Rangitikei Cup is named, was a founding father of racing in that district, complete with the regional centre being named after him. Adrian’s father Jim was a leading racing administrator, while his aunty Margaret was a trailblazing female trainer some 50 years ago.
Saturday’s winning jockey was Kelly Myers, whose family originated to the north-west of the Rangitikei region in South Taranaki and are long term friends of the Bull family.
Kelly’s grandfather Bill was a former president of the Egmont Jockey Club, and a very successful owner-trainer. He was father to esteemed trainer Kevin, Dan, a former riding master, commentator, administrator and successful breeder, and Patrick, a notable amateur rider and equestrian and father to Kelly and her now-retired jockey sister Rosie Fell.
Jay Bee Gee, a gelding by Complacent, was bred at Sir Peter Vela’s Pencarrow Stud, and according to general manager Leon Casey, from a branch of the Belle family that was come by accidentally.
“The granddam of Jay Bee Gee, Alpine, came to us as a result of a disputed sale,” recalled Casey. “She was a Zabeel filly out of Manawa Belle, so we weren’t too concerned at having to take her on.
“She was half-sister to the top two-year-old Lord Ted, and being out of the Belle family was attractive.
“She was placed at three in Australia and went on to produce five winners including the stakes winners Hasselhoof and Vercors. She only passed away last year at the grand old age of 26.
“Huluava, by Pins, was her second foal and only had a handful of starts and won three races. She had a lot of ability and has passed that on to her progeny.
“They are good, genuine racehorses who have never sold for high prices. They are probably a bit under-rated as they don’t show a lot of early ability, but it’s a good sound family.
“It’s probably one of our more active families at the moment as they are really versatile and competitive.”
Huluava, who has retired from breeding and remains a nanny at Pencarrow, is the dam of 10 foals, nine to race and all of whom are winners, including the Darci Brahma war-horse William Wallace. He was purchased for $40,000 from Kilgravin’s 2024 Ready to Ryun Sale draft.
In a career spanning seven seasons for Bull and his late wife, William Wallace won eight races and was placed a further eight times. His wins included the Listed Timaru Cup and Listed CJC Spring Classic. The ability he showed prompted Adrian Bull to return to the same source and purchase his half-brother, later to be known as Jay Bee Gee, from the National Yearling Sale draft of Bradbury Park for $26,000.
Bull has been patient with the now seven-year-old Jay Bee Gee, who has won six races from 20 starts, including a win in the Amberley Cup last June, his last race before his Winter Cup victory.
Casey acknowledged Bull’s patience and affinity with the family as the reason Sir Peter Vela sent Huluava’s second-to-last foal, Harmonious, to Bull. A six-year-old by Turn Me Loose, she rounded off a great day for the Bull stable by winning the last race on the Riccarton card, taking her record from 13 starts to two wins and three placings.
“She’s a lot stronger now and has been very unlucky not to have won a few more races,” said Casey. “Adrian has been very patient with her.
“Huluava’s last foal, a mare by Belardo named Branciforti and trained by David Greene, has now won four races from just nine starts.”
But let’s not forget Kelly Myers in this story. At 41 and now a mother to two young sons, she has shown admirable resilience to make a comeback to the riding ranks and since December has ridden 31 winners. That takes her total number of wins to 668, including 29 at Group and Listed level.
A Massey University Bachelor of Science graduate before becoming a leading apprentice 20 years ago, Myers rode competitively for 12 years before a hiatus to start a family. During that time, she worked as a personal trainer and gave back to the industry tutoring apprentices in the northern region.
It was a very emotional Myers who stated after winning on Jay Bee Gee how much she loved riding winners for the Bulls – and neither party are strangers to winning major races at Riccarton.
Myers rode the second of her three New Zealand Cup winners, Mungo Jerry, for Bull in 2014 and on stablemate Nashville enjoyed a career-high success in the Gr. 1 Otaki-Maori Weight-For-Age Classic in 2013, three months after combining with the Darci Brahma gelding in the Gr. 2 Coupland’s Bakeries Mile at Riccarton.