Belong To Many Steps Up For Her 800 Owners
Story By Alex Steedman
Tuesday, 14 October 2008:  | | Belong To Many |
Belong to Many overcame barrier 16 and a classy group of mares including Chinchilla Rose and Bel Mer to win the Listed Le Tan Stakes on Saturday at Caulfield.
Joseph has elected to run her next start in the Group 2 Schweppes Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on Cox Plate Day.
The Belong To Me mare has had two starts at Moonee Valley for a win and a second.
“She loves Moonee Valley,” Joseph said. “It's one of the main reasons. The Schweppes Stakes always turns out a field that is quite strong but there never seems to be a big field. That's probably the best race for her to go in at the moment because there aren't many Group mares races over the spring at this distance.”
It will be another rise in class for Belong to Many who posted her first black type result when she led all the way to win in the Group 2 fillies and mares Sapphire Stakes at Randwick in the autumn.
Joseph believes the mare has continued to improve.
“She's a very nice looking mare and she's just got better each year with age,” Joseph said. “She's probably racing three to four lengths better than what she was last year.”
Following the Schweppes Stakes, options for Belong to Many according to Joseph include the Group 2 Salinger Stakes on Oaks day (1200m) or the Liberty Financial Stakes (1400m) on Melbourne Cup day.
The spring prospects of Belong to Many are expected to make for an exciting spring carnival for both owners and trainer, as was evident on Saturday.
“It's always a party atmosphere with her because she's got so many owners,” Joseph said. “There were at least 100 owners there and were all pretty happy by the end of the day.”
The step up to WFA for Belong To Many is reflective of the good form the Joseph stable is enjoying.
The last WFA runner the stable had was stakes winning mare Ain't Seen Nothin, the daughter of Nothin Leica Dane most notably ran fifth in the 2003 Caulfield Cup.
Of the dozen winners Joseph has trained this season, eleven have come in the past 23 days from 33 runners – a strike rate of 33 per cent. The streak began with Joseph bagging four wins on her annual raceday at Canberra on September 19.
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