John and Karen Parsons have had a lot of success with the progeny of their talented race mare Arietta, which continued at Riccarton Park Synthetic on Saturday with La Bella Nera collecting top honours in the Christchurch Casino 27^th South Island Racing Awards – 13^th September Rating 80 (1200m).

Based out of Balcairn, the Parsons prepared a pair of runners to contest the open sprint event in La Bella Nera and More Than Words, with the former rated a hot-favourite at $1.80, ahead of her stablemate at $4.80.

In the hands of Tina Comignaghi, La Bella Nera showed her speed out of the barriers and looked to have designs on the lead, before King Cougar crossed and set the tempo for the compact field. Comignaghi brought the mare off the rail nearing the home turn and hit the front at the 300 metres, breaking away from her rivals before More Than Words flew late to produce a photo finish.

With the quinella tied up, La Bella Nera was announced the victor by a short head from More Than Words, and Karen Parsons was delighted with the result.

“With the kids at home, some were picking La Bella Nera and some were picking More Than Words, so it was great to see them so close at the finish,” she said.

“We had intended to have blinkers on La Bella Nera today, but there was a mix-up and she didn’t have them on, but she still managed to win.

“They’ll go to the next Riccarton meeting for a $50,000 race, over 1000 metres on the 31^st of August.”

A daughter of Sweynesse, La Bella Nera was bred and is owned by Karen Parsons, with the lucrative Saturday stake on offer bringing her earnings above $95,000. Her dam, Arietta was a talented performer for the stable campaigning throughout the country, with the Listed Canterbury Breeders Stakes (1400m) among her eight successes.

She has continued to shine in the broodmare paddock for the Parsons’, with her three foals to race all winners, including Watch Out, a winner of four from 14 starts.

“La Bella Nera a piece of cake to have in the stable, there aren’t too many similarities to her mother but she was a pretty handy mare as well,” Karen Parsons said.

“We used to take her up to the North Island to race and had quite a bit of luck with the family.

“She’s got a King Of Comedy colt that we can’t wait to try, he’s just a yearling.”