Fremantle businessman Craig Thompson has pencilled in Saturday, November 3 as D-Day for his brilliant mare Hallowell Belle.

Thomson and trainer Gai Waterhouse have targeted the G1 Myer Classic at Flemington after her G2 victory in the Gilgai Stakes at headquarters on Saturday.  “The world is her oyster now,” stable foreman Dave Meijer said.  “Full credit to Gai.  She’s a master at picking these races for her horses and she really clicks with fillies and mares.”

Hallowell Belle (4m Starcraft – Bella Inez by Beautiful Crown) has won 3 races from 16 starts and she has also been G1 placed in a Blue Diamond at Caulfield plus a Flight Stakes and T J Smith at Randwick.

Thompson bought her for $170,000 at the 2010 Inglis Melbourne Premier yearling sale and has since banked more than $780,000.  The Myer is worth $500,000 and Waterhouse won it in 2005 with Lotteria.

Hallowell Belle is Thompson’s flag-bearer on the eastern seaboard and he’s been just a successful back home with last season’s feature winners King Saul (G2 WA Guineas) and Luke’s Luck (G2 Karrakatta Plate).

Thompson is managing director of leading ship brokerage firm Seacorp and he began developing Mt Hallowell Stud after buying the Denmark property five years ago.  It comprises 170 acres and is located on the south-western tip of Western Australia.

Mt Hallowell Stud will catalogue its first yearlings at the 2013 Perth Magic Millions and Thompson will also send a More Than Ready filly from a sister to Court Command to one of the Eastern State Sales.

There are also plans to stand a couple of commercial stallions at the former vineyard in the future.  “But I’m not going to have more than 15 mares on the property,” Thompson told Sunspeed Magazine in July.  “I don’t want it to be a burden – I won’t go a single mare past that figure.”

Unless, of course, that extra mare is Hallowell Belle.

– Karl Patterson

HALLOWELL D-DAY
Craig Thompson brings Luke’s Luck back to scale after the Karrakatta Plate