Chris Waller's $1.6m son of racing superstar Frankel made a winning return at Newcastle on the Beaumont track on Tuesday.
A three-year-old colt, Merovee is the first foal of the four-time stakes winner More Strawberries, and he beat the older horses when taking out the XXXX Gold CG&E Maiden Plate (1350m).
Merovee settled slightly worse than midfield in the early stages of the race before making his move out four-wide approaching the home turn.
In the straight, Merovee strode to the front passing the 300m then appeared in trouble when challenged by Legendofoz but the colt refused to surrender, finding plenty as the pair drew clear from the rest of the field.
Merovee ($2.40 fav) defeated Legendofoz ($3.20) by three-quarters of a length with 4-1/4 lengths back to the third placegetter Mister McIlroy ($3).
Frankel gets his first 🇦🇺 winner!
— Sky Racing (@SkyRacingAU) August 15, 2017
$1.6 million colt Merovee (Frankel x More Strawberries) gets on the board with a tough win at #Newcastle. pic.twitter.com/19wd6oOoCE
"He looked good but he felt really good," winning rider Hugh Bowman told Sky Racing.
"I was able to get moving when it suited me and I loved the way he dug deep the last 100 because he had a fight on his hands and for an inexperienced horse to respond the way he did I thought was a very good sign.
"To my eye he still looks very immature physically so he's going to develop into a much nicer horse in time but I'll leave Chris to manage him, he does a pretty good job at it."
More Strawberries and champion race mare More Joyous were sent to Europe by their owner John Singleton to be covered by Frankel in his first season at stud in Southern Hemisphere time.
More Joyous' foal is an unraced filly named Woman in the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable that's been to the trials on two occasions.
The only other three-year-old Frankel in Australia is the Robbie Laing-trained Frankel My Dear which made its debut at Flemington when fifth in a three-year-old handicap over 1000m on August 5.
