Mellody Belle connections.  Photo credit: The Races

Melody Belle’s success in the Hawke’s Bay Triple Crown has focussed attention on the three NZB Insurance Triple Crown bonuses which will debut this term. Successfully completing any of the Triple Crown assignments will be worth another $100,000 for the successful connections.

The Weight-for-Age Triple Crown will comprise the Cambridge Stud Zabeel Classic at Ellerslie, on December 26, the Herbie Dyke Stakes at Te Rapa on February 8 and the Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes at Ellerslie on March 7. All three races will be run at 2000m.

The Sistema Railway (1200m) at Ellerslie, the JR & N Berkett Telegraph (1200m) at Trentham and the BCD Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa on February 8 make up the Sprint Triple Crown.

 The Fillies and Mare Triple Crown comprises the Cuddle Stakes (1600m) at Trentham on March 14, the Fiber Fresh NZ Thoroughbred Stakes (1600m) at Te Aroha on April 4 and the Travis Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa on April 25.

Melody Belle contested all three legs of the Sprint Series last season. She won the BCD Sprint but the Railway (3rd) and Telegraph (16th) were the only races she failed to win as a four-year-old. 

It will not be easy to record a clean-sweep in any of the series but the weight-for-age treble, which contains three races under the same conditions and at the same distance, with two of the races at Ellerslie, has the least number of variables. Dominant performers, as Melody Belle has shown, can record a succession of wins at weight-for-age.

Lashed completed the treble in 2004 and Shez Sinsational won the Zabeel and Herbie Dyke in the 2011-12 season but then contested the Auckland Cup – which she won – rather than the New Zealand Stakes.

Vosne Romanee won both the Zabeel and the New Zealand Stakes, as well as the $1.2m Kelt Stakes at Hastings, in the 2009-10 season but did not contest the Herbie Dyke.

Soriano, MacO’Reilly, Fayreform and Bonecrusher are among the others who have notched wins in two of the three legs in the same season, since the Zabeel was first run in 1985.

Bonecrusher won the Herbie Dyke and New Zealand Stakes as a three-year-old but did not contest the Zabeel, which was then run at the Ellerslie Easter meeting. The Zabeel was transferred to the Christmas carnival at Ellerslie in 1993.

The Sprint Triple Crown should be an easier target now that the Telegraph has joined the BCD (Waikato) Sprint as a weight-for-age race.

The Te Rapa feature was first run in 1974 and no horse has won all three races in the same year since, though there have been 14 instances of horses winning two of the three legs in the same year.

In addition, Whanganui sprinter Start Wondering was only a nose away from the treble in 2017. Start Wondering won the first and third legs and was beaten by a nose in the Telegraph.

Champion sprinter Mr Tiz won both the Railway and the Waikato Sprint in 1991 and ran second in the Telegraph. He carried 60.5 in the Telegraph and was giving the winner Vain Sovereign 8.5kg. Mr Tiz had won the Railway and the Telegraph the previous year but missed the chance to win at Te Rapa when the Waikato Sprint meeting was abandoned after one race.

Mr Tiz, who won the Railway in three successive years - including two dead-heats – also completed the Railway-Telegraph double in 1989 but bypassed the Waikato Sprint that year.

Eight horses have won the Telegraph and the Waikato Sprint in the same year, with Mufhasa and Courier Bay doing it twice. 

Courier Bay went close to winning the Sprint Triple Crown in successive years, twice finishing second in the Railway – behind Diamond Lover and Alynda - before winning at Trentham and Te Rapa.

The Railway and Telegraph double has proved elusive in recent years and Bawalaksana, in 1999, was the last horse to complete the double in the same year. South Island sprinter Fritz won both races but in different seasons.

The Fillies and Mares Triple Crown should encourage participation in the Group III Cuddle, which would be a suitable leadup to the Group I weight-for-age Thoroughbred Breeders’ three weeks later.

The Cuddle, which was first run in 1967, did not switch to its current March date till 2012. Since then, all bar one of the Cuddle winners have also tackled the Breeders’ Stakes but none has been able to complete the double.

However, O’Fille and Rasa Lila won both the Cuddle and the Travis and Charmont won the Breeders’ Stakes after finishing third in the Cuddle. Miss Wilson has won both the Cuddle and the Breeders’ Stakes but in different seasons.