A hard-nosed, ruggedly bred Kiwi gelding, Ring The Bell tasted success in Australia

Ring The Bell, born in September 1977, developed into a resilient New Zealand Thoroughbred. Notably, in 1981, the horse achieved victory in the esteemed New Zealand Derby, marking the second Derby triumph within a three-year span for the accomplished trainer, Neville Atkins. As a yearling, Ring the Bell had been sold for $3,000 to E M Mackley & B P Wild. Ring The Bell was by the sire Rangong by the mare, Witchcraft. He was bred to be solid coming from old school GB bloodlines, with his grandsire Right Royal (1958) who was from Owen Tudor (1938). Witchcraft was NZ bred from the sire, Mystery (GB).

He was a good racehorse throughout his career, but there was one amazing patch of form in the middle for which he will be most remembered. He defeated older horses at weight-for-age conditions at Ellerslie Racecourse and then won the Avondale Guineas and the New Zealand Derby. In March 1981, Ring the Bell was sent to race in Australia where he became the first New Zealand-trained horse to win the Canterbury Guineas. After finishing second to fellow Kiwi (Our) Paddy Boy in the AJC Derby in April 1981, Ring The Bell returned to NZ ten days later for the Avondale Championship Stakes over 2000 metres. He carried top weight to a comfortable one length victory which, according to the Sydney Morning Herald proved him to be "a cut above" the rest of his generation in Australia and New Zealand.

He was ridden to victory in the Derby by Nigel Tiley, who later trained Look Who's Talking, an upset winner of the race in 1994. Ring the Bell was favourite for the Derby and Tiley put him into a wonderul spot until he kicked clear at the top of the straight with the win never in doubt. Late in his career, Ring the Bell was campaigned in Britain. He finished a promising second to Kalaglow in the Earl of Sefton Stakes but his subsequent form was disappointing. As a stallion, his progeny included the Grand National winner Lord Gyllene. The race was scheduled to be run on Saturday 5 April 1997, but was postponed by two days to Monday 7th of April after a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb threat forced the evacuation of the course. Lord Gyllene had a race record in the UK of 13 runs: won 4, second 5 and third once, as well as two wins from 23 starts in New Zealand. His final appearance in his homeland was a winning one, in a steeplechase at Te Rapa racecourse in Hamilton on 16 September 1995. That followed his second at Ellerslie to one of the great jumpers in New Zealand racing history, Sydney Jones, in the Pakuranga Hunt Cup. Ring The Bell is remembered in New Zealand as a rock solid performer of the early eighties who was capable of digging in deep and fighting like a tiger. A feisty type might be a more apt description of the horse.

RACE RECORD - 19: 8-5-2

EARNINGS - $124,600

Alison Stakes (1980)

New Zealand Derby (1980)

Avondale Guineas (1980)

Canterbury Guineas (1981)

Tulloch Stakes (1981)

Avondale Championship Stakes (1981)

Canterbury Guineas (1981)