By David Nagel
Pakenham trainer Charlotte Littlefield now has a Group victory to her name after her four-year-old mare She’s Bulletproof gunned down her rivals in the $200,000 Group 3 Geoffrey Bellmaine Stakes (1200m) at Sandown Lakeside on Saturday.
The daughter of Shooting To Win/Offshore Sham collected her fourth win from her 11th career start with a devastating burst at the top of the Sandown straight; with jockey Mark Zahra easing her down on the line to win by almost three lengths.
She’s Bulletproof gave Zahra his third win in the race and provided Littlefield with one of her biggest thrills in racing.
“You can probably see my heart pumping through my chest at the moment because it’s a lot to take in,” Littlefield said post-race.
“This horse is very special to us; our big group of very close friends and family.
“It’s just really rewarding to get this horse to win this race today; it means so much.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet; obviously it’s going to be a little while before it does.
“But she’s thoroughly deserved it, she’s put her hand up several times, and (there are) just a few things that we’ve changed around to get her to peak today.
“It’s all come to fruition hasn’t it; she didn’t just win she won very well.
“I’m so proud of her, I’m so proud of my team, so proud of anyone that’s had anything to do with her.
“I just think it’s brilliant…very happy.”
Littlefield has put a power of work into her stable star since she ran second to Romantic Choice in the Listed Black Pearl Stakes (1200m) at Geelong on January 4.
Some tweaks were made to the mare’s program after she failed to take a late-rails run when starting a $2.30 favourite at Geelong.
Many pundits thought She’s Bulletproof simply didn’t fire in a claustrophobic crowded finish, but Littlefield had other ideas and made the appropriate changes.
A changed of diet was needed to trim the ‘good doing’ mare down.
“The main one was we did notice she got away from us a little bit in the Geelong race, where she ran a very gallant second, but she just struggled to pick that other horse up, and that’s not like her,” Littlefield explained.
“It was really, really hard to get that weight off her, because she’s such a good doer.
“We had to strip her feed right back; she was on six kilo of grain a day, she’s (now) on four kilo of grain a day.
“It’s not a lot to give a horse that does demand more food.
“A bit more roughage in the diet, a lot more swimming, work her harder, and I’m not normally known as a trainer that works them too hard, but she’s been worked pretty hard this girl.
“We’ve had to; every horse is different so you just have to tailor everything to every horse and I think she’s taught me a lot this horse.”
Littlefield has no immediate plans for her gun mare, but will keep her in work while identifying her next target.
“We’ve had that question asked several times…’where to next’, and we hate that question, because we just want to celebrate the win today, we want to get our feet back on the ground,” she said.
“But truth be known she’s going that well; you never tip a mare out that’s in form.
“We space her runs and she’s doing exceptionally well; why would you put a horse out in this weather at the moment in the paddock.
“There’s no grass, the flies are terrible, so we’ll just keep her ticking along and pick out something in another four weeks.
“I’m not sure what that will be, but off that, you’d think she’d be going pretty well again.”
She’s Bulletproof started a $4 favourite and finished well clear of Michael Hickmott’s Adelaide-raider Fancify ($7), with Wrote To Arataki ($19) running a much-improved race to finish a length back in third.
Zahra shared riding honours on the day, riding a winning double alongside Blake Shinn.
Racing resumes at Sandown this Wednesday 5 February.
