Gr.1 Australian Derby winner Major Beel was back winning at stakes level when landing the Listed ATC Cup (2000m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained son of Savabeel has been a winner at benchmark level since his Derby triumph but hadn’t troubled the scorer for the past 12 months.
Sent out a firming $21 chance, Major Beel out-toughed well-fancied stablemate Shangi La Spring to score by a length and a quarter in the hands of Rachel King.
“He’s been quite consistent and needed the right conditions to break through and getting back out to 2000m gave him that chance today,” Bott said.
“He was aided by a lovely ride by Rachel and things really fell into place for him and he made it count.
“We’ve been really happy with him going into today, his two runs at the mile were good but at this stage of his career they’re a bit sharp for him over that distance now.
“The 2000m is his sweet spot and today showed us that he’s set for a good preparation over the Summer.
“All the main staying races are there for him and we have the option of maybe even stretching him out over further as well.”
Major Beel is the first foal of the unraced O’Reilly mare Gram, a daughter of the Gr.2 Karakatta Plate (1200m) winner Gold Rocks, whose daughters Gold Fever and Gold Rush both won the Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) for two-year-old fillies.
Major Beel was purchased out of Waikato Stud’s draft at the Gold Coast Yearling Sale for A$260,000 by Waterhouse, Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds, with the Matamata farm remaining in the ownership of the galloper, who has won six races and A$1,890,250 in prizemoney. – NZ Racing Desk
