Bel­la Ri­va, the Jet­sam Award win­ner for the Cham­pi­on Ju­ve­nile of 2019, stretched her un­beat­en record to five suc­cess­es from as many starts when she cruised to vic­to­ry on Sat­ur­day in the fi­nal event on Day Nine of the Ari­ma Race Club (ARC) rac­ing sea­son which sig­nalled the re-start of lo­cal rac­ing af­ter the coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) pan­dem­ic.

Bel­la Ri­va was sent off as the pro­hib­i­tive favourite, at odds of 3-5 and she did not dis­ap­point her back­ers, as she cruised to an im­pres­sive suc­cess in the time of 1:12.3. The Poon Tip Stud Farm owned fil­ly scored by 3 3/4 lengths from sta­ble­mate News Flash.

From the start, Bri­an Boodram­s­ing was con­tent­ed to track to the ear­ly pace set by Spring Val­ley and Ma­ha Ra­ja. How­ev­er, at the far turn Boodram­s­ing asked the daugh­ter of Saint Vigeur/Grand Riv­iere to take a clos­er look at the or­der. Com­ing to the cor­ner Boodram­s­ing al­lowed the fil­ly an inch of rein and she loomed up on the out­side of Spring Val­ley and Ma­ha Ra­ja, as sta­ble­mate News Flash be­gan to ad­vance to the lead­ers.

On en­ter­ing the straight Bel­la Ri­va had al­ready kicked two lengths clear and was eas­i­ly putting day­light be­tween her­self and her ri­vals. At the Line, Bel­la Ri­va en­hanced her 'Triple Crown' as­pi­ra­tion with im­pres­sive suc­cess. Sta­ble­mate News Flash was sec­ond with Fast N Fu­ri­ous run­ning on for third ahead of ear­ly leader Spring Val­ley.

In the fea­ture Mod­i­fied Bench­mark Hand­i­cap for three-year-old and Over Hors­es Rat­ed 80-60 over on the main track.

Out­sider Reg­gae Rhythm land­ing a gam­ble when up­set­ting the field at 23-1. Reg­gae Rhythm swooped to con­quer at the dis­tance and ran away from his ri­vals un­der Ke­iron Raza­ck for train­er R Lal­la Ma­haraj.

The sev­en-year-old was al­ways front rank along­side the du­elling lead­ers Desert Dancer and In­tegri­ty. At the hors­es swung for home Desert Dancer still held sway from In­tegri­ty with Reg­gae Rhythm be­ing pro­duced on the out­side. With 200 me­tres left Reg­gae Rhythm was sent for home and he opened up a two-length gap on his near­est pur­suer.

At the line, Reg­gae Rhythm was a com­fort­able win­ner by 1 3/4 lengths from Re­gal In­ten­sion which was run­ning on in the clos­ing stages with Amer­i­can Dil­lon nab­bing Desert Dancer on the line for third mon­ey.

Bel­la Ri­va will now wait un­til Au­gust 1, for her tilt at the first jew­el of lo­cal rac­ing "Triple Crown'- the Guineas.

SE­LECT­ED RE­SULTS

R6: MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP 3. Y.O AND OVER HORS­ES RAT­ED 60-45 1200M - $16,600

1*(10)*Bel­la Ri­va*B Boodram­s­ing*51.5*

2*(4)*News Flash*R Jadoo*54*

3*(7)*Fast'N'Fu­ri­ous*N Sama­roo*56.5*

4*(1)*Spring Val­ley*K San­to*51*

5*(9)*Chin­ta*B Pa­hal*55*

TIME: 1:12.3 DIS­TANCES: 3 3/4, 1 1/4, Sh.Head, 3/4.

$1PARI: (10) $1.65; $1.35; (4) $1.75; (7) $1.20

$1EX­AC­TA: $4.70

TRI­FEC­TA: $11.30

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $209.30

HI-5: $407.10

WIN­NER: 3 y.o DK B fil­ly - Saint Vigeur/Grand Riv­iere (A Great Team)

OWN­ER: Poon Tip Stud Farm Lim­it­ed TRAIN­ER: J O'Brien

BREED­ER: Poon Tip Stud Farm Lim­it­ed

AL­SO RAN: 6. Ma­ha Ra­ja O Mo­hammed 55.5; 7. Nabawi N Abrego 57.5; 8. Sen­te­bale R Ali 54.5; 9. Ben Is Back P Badrie 57.

NON-RUN­NER: Leonar­do An­gel.