Wishing Belle Photo by Pacepix
Aiden De Campo has a serious filly in his very astute hands, but he’s not one to compare, but going into next week’s Diamond Classic final he’s confident with where Wishing Belle’s tracking at this stage of her racing prep.
“I’m happy with the horse, the barrier draw is always a great leveller, there’s a couple of other nice horses on the night so she isn’t going to rock up and just win but I wouldn’t be swapping her for anything else.”
After sitting three deep the trip at Bunbury less than a fortnight ago, De Campo, who was watching via Sky Racing in New Zealand, was certain she would drop out, but it was that night she showed she was a serious horse to contend with, further confirming the sentiment when she took out Heat 3 of the Diamond Classic.
“I thought Trent was unlucky, there wasn’t much more he could do I didn’t think, but I thought she would drop right out going down the back and around the corner.
“Trent was probably a bit worried about doing too much on her, so he sat up on her, but I was pretty stunned when she got across the line to be fair.” Aiden De Campo said.
Starting from barrier 7 in Mondays heat at Gloucester Park, the $1.24 favourite worked her way forward to gain the lead, kicking away to win by 19.6m
“She’s a pretty no fuss filly, she’s quite lazy and when she was out front she was just kind of cruising, I was really happy with her.
“It’s hard to compare, she’s probably not a horse that comes out on the track and blows anything away because she’s so lazy and you have to make her do what she does, but she’s no fuss, which is the best thing about her, she doesn’t really have any problems at this stage, she’s really well mannered, she can obviously run a little bit.”
Originally passed in at the 2024 APG Perth Yearling Sales, De Campo messaged Kody Charles to say he would see him after the completion of the sales if he missed out on another horse he was interested in, and by the end of the day the deal was done, and $55,000 later she belonged to her large ownership group.
A winner of five from just six attempts, Wishing Belle takes her earnings to just shy of $90,000, not including the very impressive Westbred and first win bonus incentives her owners have also received.
De Campo currently has around 30 in work, with some exciting horses to follow in the coming weeks, including last start winner Bettor Move Matty, with De Campo stating, “He’s a quality two-year-old, I really like him.”
Looking forward to next Tuesdays 2YO Pearl heats at Gloucester Park, De Campo will have a number of runners in the heats that he’s excited to watch.
“They’re probably not as proven as what Wishing Belle is but they’re all starting to come along good. Bettor Move Matty, American Machine, Wheellofortune won on Saturday and goes pretty good, and Bettor Behave, he’s been unlucky his last couple back, they’ll go pretty good.”
“Crunchem who won Friday night isn’t eligible for the Pearl, but he should go good come Westbred time.”
“At the moment it’s that time of the year for the babies but I think I have about 10-12 two-year-olds in work and they’re all just starting to come up in to racing, and I’ve got a fair few older ones that have been in the system for a while, like Menemsha is back on Friday.
“This time of year, I start to get excited about the babies, because you do all the hard work, it’s good to get a bit of a reward this time of year.”
Menemsha went to the paddock for a two week freshen up after his last start on June 6, with De Campo confirming he’s had a fair bit of work put into him and starts from barrier 5 in race 3 (2536m).
Westbred night is fast approaching and for De Campo, it’s one of the biggest nights for his stable.
“I’ll have probably four or five each division for the two, three and four (year-olds), all looking for starts, that’s why we’re cranking up now.”
De Campo, a man of many talents, is involved in every facet of his horses training stages starting with the breaking in of his youngsters, a process that he actually quite enjoys.
“Grandad did it, dad did it, just like to do it myself, I actually quite like doing it when I’m not real busy, it’s quite therapeutic breaking babies in, you can always dream about how good they are, even if they’re not.”
“Plus, if they turn out to be not well mannered, I’ve got no one to blame but myself.”
De Campo is looking forward to the next three to four years with his team now that he has moved to his new property in Hopeland
“I’m really excited for the next three to four years to have a good crack at getting as many winners as possible.”.
