After a successful 2010/11 season on the track, Pencarrow Stud principals Peter & Philip Vela are among the three finalists for the award of Owner of the Year at New Zealand’s Thoroughbred Racing Awards later this month.

Under the care of trainers Steven Ramsey and Julia Ritchie, Pencarrow Racing notched up three stakes wins last season and uncovered some highly promising and talented horses.

Opening the Pencarrow black-type account was the Encosta de Lago mare Our Ella Belle (ex Kirin Belle) who won the Group 3 Taranaki Cup in mid-February.

Racing well prior to the Group 3 with a win over 1400 metres in Te Rapa, the now five-year-old mare then went to Trentham where she ran a good third over the mile after running wide in the straight and producing a late finish.

The 1800 metres of the Taranaki Cup saw the best of Our Ella Belle as last season’s Champion Jockey James McDonald brought the mare round the pack on the turn and kept her honest in the straight as she notched up a memorable one length win.

Our Ella Belle will be in the hunt for more black-type this season as she is headed for the second leg of the Hawke’s Bay Triple Crown, the Group 1 Windsor Park Plate (1600m).

Next to taste stakes success was the Red Ransom mare Amaryllis (ex Lafleur) who won the Group 3 Darley Plate (1200m) at Ellerslie in March.

With a career boasting eight wins from 26 starts, Amaryllis came into the Group 3 sprint after a short break from the track after winning at Ellerslie in mid-January. Ridden by James McDonald in the Darley Plate fresh up, the mare took the lead at the top of the Ellerslie straight and never looked back, taking her black-type debut by a classy one-and-a-quarter lengths.

One of the emerging stars of the season was the now five-year-old mare Guiseppina (Johar x Battocchi). A filly that had shown she had a great deal of ability when beating subsequent Group 1 winners Keep the Peace and The Party Stand, she exploded back onto the track last season after 16 months away from the races.

Her three successive wins last season culminated in the Listed Flying Handicap where she produced a dazzling turn of foot to put paid to a field containing the likes of Eileen Dubh, Juice, Vincent Mangano, Bulginbaah and O’Cartier.

Guiseppina is currently back in training for the spring and will likely step out at the Te Teko trials at the end of the month before a spring campaign is mapped out for her.

Pencarrow Racing sent out a total of 26 winners for the season that also included Banchee (Oratorio) who won the Karaka 3YO Mile, Dolmabache (Redoute’s Choice), Miranda Miss (Reset), Kudamm (Cape Cross), Halekulanu (Encosta de Lago), Via Veneto (Cape Cross), Singapore winner Steel Cut (Danehill), Santangelo (Lonhro) and many more.

With a number of other promising horses coming through the ranks including the son of Ethereal in Ebullient (Stravinsky) and the young blue-blood Papilio (Redoute’s Choice), Pencarrow Racing has a strong team of horses for the new season.