The $500,000 Group 1 Futurity Stakes (1400m) turned into a battle of the star mares with New Zealand’s Probabeel defeating the Western Australian Arcadia Queen.
With Damian Lane in the saddle for trainer Jamie Richards, the 4yo daughter of Savabeel powered home to defeat the 5yo Pierro mare by a half-length with the 5yo Shamus Award gelding Mr Quickie two lengths back in third.
It was the third Group 1 for Probabeel after the ATC Epsom Handicap and Surround Stakes whiling advancing her record to ten wins and six seconds with earnings of $2,867,978.
For the 31-year-old Richards it was Group 1 win number 40.
“To sit deep in that quality of field and put pay to them pretty comfortably was a terrific effort,” stable representative Brad Taylor said.
“She’s a grand, fit mare now and Jamie and the whole team at home can be proud of her.
“Ashley, who has travelled over and spent a lot of the last year looking after these horses, does a fantastic job and I’m sure Jamie and Karen will be very proud of her.
“It was a really good turn-of-foot. She showed that here first-up and when she sprinted clear of them it was a nice watch over the last hundred metres.
“(Jamie) is a very good mate to me. I take a lot of inspiration from what he does. He gets up at 1:45am every morning and gets into the office two hours before any staff member turns up. He dedicates his life to it. He probably misses out on a few things that he would like to have done with his mates.
“But for days like this he deserves everything he gets, and the success he has is fantastic. He’s been put in a very good position and I’m sure if he was here he’d say a big thank you to David Ellis and Karen. They put a lot of trust in him and he’s delivering the results.”
Probabeel and Arcadia Queen could meet up again in the $5 million All-Star Mile at Moonee Valley on March 13.
Sporting the silks of Brendon and Jo Lindsay's Cambridge Stud, Probabeel was purchased by David Ellis for $380,000 out of the Waikato Stud draft at the 2018 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale.
She is the only foal of the stakes-placed Pins mare Far Fetched who died at the age of seven in 2017.
Far Fetched was a three-quarter sister to Group II MRC Thousand Guineas Prelude and Group III Manfred Stakes winner Legless Veuve and the Group III MRC Mannerism Stakes winner and Group 1 WRC Telegraph Hcp runner-up Tootsie.
