Diva Bee takes centre stage

Bruce Stewart Journalist

Based on her pedigree and coming from a stable renowned for turning out good trotters, the Nathan Williamson trained first starter Diva Bee (Marcoola) was always going to be hard to beat at Ascot Park today.

The punters thought so too, making the three year old daughter of Hawaiian Hula the favourite.

“She handled herself really well through the early part of the race because things got a bit tight. She just wanted to get her head round and go a bit rough on the first bend and in fact for the rest of the way. I’m going to work on that,” Williamson said.

Before today’s debut Diva Bee had been to a trial and three workouts.

In today’s race Williamson slotted her into the one one. At the 400 he pulled her out three wide and she let down nicely to win by two lengths, untouched.

Diva Bee winning at Invercargill (Bruce Stewart Photo)

“I’ve always liked her. She’s shown a bit of ability but she’s been quite quirky, not straight forward and is very seasonal. What she is doing now is for education. I’m looking forward to giving her a bit of a break through the winter and getting her back in the spring.”

Diva Bee and her winning connections (Bruce Stewart Photo)

Williamson, who was celebrating his birthday today, won the service to Diva Bee’s sire Marcoola.

“I loved Marcoola. I thought he was a great horse who was well handled by the Ford family. I wanted to go to Marcoola because Hawaiian Hula is one of the few mares in New Zealand that didn’t have any Sundon in her pedigree. Her mother Kylie Ree was by Monarchy and I bred most of the foals out of Kylie Ree and they were all good.”

Those foals were Kiwitrix (6), Son Of Patrick (10) and Gus (13).

“I ended up buying Hawaiian Hula at the sales. She was a talented mare but she was unsound in the knees and ended up winning just one race. She had a lot of speed, ability and a beautiful gait. She was a Dream Vacation mare and I was told that Dream Vacation mares are great broodmares. Mark Hurrell bred the next one out of her and sold him at the sales to Sam Payne. Then I bred her to Father Patrick and we sold her to Matty (Nathan’s brother Matty Williamson). She has a Majestic Son colt that I just weaned yesterday and I loaned Georgia (stable hand Georgia Goodman) the mare and she won a fee service to Classic Connection so the mare’s in foal to him.”