Kelso Wood continued his white-hot form when he trained consistent sprinter Belltone to win the $175,000 Eye Liner Stakes at Ipswich on Saturday.
Wood won last week’s Group One TJ Smith Stakes with stable star Sizzling and the highly-respected horseman is tipping Belltone to scale to similar heights before his career is finished.
“He’s definitely got a Group One race in him this horse, I am sure of that,” Wood said.
“He’s up to winning a race like the Doncaster (Mile) or the Epsom.
“I’ve trained plenty of good horses in my career like Sizzling and Zero Rock but there’s not many that give you as much confidence as this horse does.
“Every time you take him to the races you know he is going to give you everything he’s got.”
Belltone, the $3.20 favourite, continued the successful partnership Wood is forging with leading rider Chris Munce when he scored a well-deserved win in the Listed sprint.
Munce afforded Belltone a lovely run right behind the speed and the horse sprinted quickly in the straight to beat the well-supported Jetset Lad ($11) by a neck with Adnocon ($10) a nose back third in his attempt to win his third consecutive Eye Liner.
Wood selected Belltone as a yearling and paid $20,000 for him and the six-year-old has now won seven races and registered nine minor placings from 24 starts for prizemoney of $300,000.
The trainer said Belltone would look to further increase his bank balance when he contests the Glasshouse Handicap at the Sunshine Coast on June 30.
“He’ll love that big track up there and I think he’ll be very hard to beat again,” Wood said.
“He’s never gone better and I am very disappointed he didn’t make it into the Stradbroke field but this win is a nice consolation.”
