A Dreamy sister

It was interesting to watch Belleluia’s sister, Dreamy, run an encouraging third at Canterbury on Thursday night.

Dreamy, who is owned by Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley and trained by Peter Snowden, has won only one race from 11 starts, but she has always showed good ability.

Snowden stretched Dreamy’s racing distance beyond 1400m for the first time, and Dreamy responded with a luckless third behind Mega Excel in a 1550m benchmark 70 event. There is little doubt that with a clear run, Dreamy would have won.

The fact that Dreamy is showing promise over longer distances is encouraging for the future of Belleluia, who is spelling at Eliza Park.

Song Of The Sun, the dam of Belleluia and Dreamy, although a winner twice at 1100m, ran her best races from 1400m and beyond. As a 3YO, she finished a career-best fifth, beaten only 1.8 lengths, in the 2500m Group 1 SA Oaks (won by Dowry) at Morphettville in 2004.

Song Of The Sun (gr m 2000, Desert Sun (GB)-Song Of Norway, by Vain) also finished second, beaten a head, behind Harley Ma in the 2003 Listed Port Adelaide Guineas (1600m) at Morphettville during a spring campaign in which she was placed at Moonee Valley (1600m) and Caulfield (1400m).

Although Belleluia shows natural speed, inherited from her sire Bel Esprit, she is built – long and lean – like a filly that might be at her best when her distances get closer to 1600m, especially when she strengthens with maturity.

While Dreamy is a heavier set filly than Belleluia, she also probably lacks our filly’s high speed. Dreamy’s progress is worth following in the next few weeks.