Star New Zealand three-year-old filly Probabeel has proved a class above her age-group rivals, making a winning start to her summer campaign at Awapuni.
Probabeel was backed as unbeatable on past performances which include a win in the Karaka Million 2YO (1200m) last season along with a runner-up finish to Funstar in the Group One Flight Stakes (1600m) at Randwick to round out her spring campaign.
Punters who took Saturday’s $1.15 had no concerns as she cruised along midfield under Opie Bosson before overhauling the leader Queen Kamada to beat her by two lengths.
Trainer Jamie Richards was happy with the performance despite his charge looking a little sluggish at times during the race.
“She had a bit of a bee in her bonnet before the start so she’s going to improve a lot for it,” Richards told NZ Racing Desk.
“She’s not usually a filly to win by a big margin so it’s good to see that we’ve got that out of the road.
“I guess you would have liked to see her do it a little easier, but she’s one of those fillies who only goes as good as the other ones are going.”
Owned by Cambridge Stud proprietors Brendan and Jo Lindsay, Probabeel was bought by Te Akau Racing boss David Ellis for $380,000 from the Waikato Stud draft at Karaka in 2018.
“She showed she was special when winning her first start at Ellerslie, and after winning three from four she unfortunately struck two heavy tracks when we took her to Sydney as a two-year-old,” Ellis said.
“She had a good spell and we kicked her off again at Randwick, and, really, she was pretty unlucky not to win one of the legs of the Princess Series. She was racing against the best fillies in Australia, and showed she was up to them.”
Probabeel will now head to the Karaka Million 3YO Classic (1600m) at Ellerslie on January 25 when she will attempt to become the first horse to take out both the two-year-old and three-year-old $1 million features.
