Exciting two-year-old Probabeel gave racegoers a glimpse of her undoubted ability when she blitzed her rivals over 1100m at Ellerslie on Saturday.
Narrowly defeated over 1000m at Te Rapa on
debut, the Brendan and Jo Lindsay owned Savabeel filly put that experience to
good use to nail her first career victory.
Prepared at Matamata by Jamie Richards, the filly had been confidently tipped to improve over the extra distance of Saturday's contest with one punter outlaying $20,000 at $1.55 on the Fixed Odds market shortly before race start.
That confidence did look a little shaky when rider Opie Bosson was seen working on the filly approaching the home turn as she set out after second favourite O'Charm.
Those worries quickly dissipated as Bosson balanced his mount up, before she extended effortlessly to race clear for a four and a half-length victory.
"I was a little bit worried turning in as she hit a little bit of a flat spot," Bosson said.
"Once she changed leg and balanced up, she came up underneath me straight away."
Bosson believes the filly is amongst the top juveniles in the Te Akau team although he cautioned that she was currently going through a development phase.
"She's up there but she's probably just growing a little bit at the moment and going through a developing stage," he said.
"Whatever she does now is just a bonus as I just can't wait for her as a three-year-old."
Trainer Jamie Richards was another to be impressed by the victory.
"It was a bloody good win and she's a pretty exciting filly," he said. "She had trialled really well and probably didn't quite get the rub of the green on debut at Te Rapa. She tried hard and wasn't beaten by much (a head).
"She's a tall filly, with plenty of scope, and doesn't really look like a natural two-year-old, but she possesses an X-factor which means she's capable of doing what some other horses aren't able to.
"She's a very laidback customer in training, but her work had been good and the side winkers helped her concentration."
The victory continues a winning run with two-year-olds for new Cambridge Stud proprietors Brendan and Jo Lindsay who also race brilliant Snitzel filly Bavella. The Lance Noble-trained Bavella is unbeaten in two runs following her success in the Listed Splice Construction Stakes (1100m) at Pukekohe last weekend.
Bred by Garry Chittick, Probabeel was purchased for $380,000 by Te Akau Racing boss David Ellis from the Waikato Stud draft during the Book 1 session at the 2018 NZB National Yearling Sale.
She is the daughter of stakes-placed Pins mare Far Fetched and from an extended family that includes multiple stakes winners Tootsie and Legless Veuve. – NZ Racing Desk
