Hoping to have wood on rivals
AFTER New Zealand horse Quick Thinker captured the Australian Derby, Kiwi racing fans have set their sights on a Classic clean sweep with class filly Probabeel in the Australian Oaks at Randwick today.
New Zealand horses have enjoyed a heady run of success in Sydney’s autumn blue ribands. Three of the past six winners of the Oaks were trained in New Zealand.
That’s not including last year’s winner, Verry Elleegant, who was Sydneytrained but born and raised in New Zealand, where she did her early racing.
Trainer Jamie Richards will be the hope of his homeland at Randwick today with Probabeel, after making a belated decision to extend her preparation.
The filly is one of the favourites, along with the Godolphintrained Colette, who is on a sevenday back up after winning last weekend’s Adrian Knox Stakes.
Probabeel is untested at the distance, but she is stoutly bred. By noted sire of stayers Savabeel, she is out of Pins mare Far Fetched, which was stakes placed over 2100m before finishing unplaced in the 2014 New Zealand Oaks.
The New Zealand industry is renowned for breeding quality stayers and Richards said it is no surprise his country has had such success in the threeyearold Classics in Australia.
“They’ve always been kind to us and they are nice races to target, because obviously our horses can stay a bit,” Richards said.
“It’s nice to be targeting a race we have had success in in the past as a nation.”
The class runner in today’s renewal, Probabeel kicked off her campaign in January with backtoback wins in New Zealand and brought that form to Australia, winning the Surround Stakes.
She was runnerup to Funstar in the Phar Lap Stakes and just failed to reel in Shout The Bar in the Vinery Stud Stakes in her last start.
That was to have been her grand finale, but with the shape of future racing carnivals uncertain, Richards decided to press on to the Oaks.
“She is getting to the end of a pretty long campaign now, but with so much uncertainty around what’s going to happen in the spring, I think we’ve made the right decision to run her,” Richards said.
“She has held her fitness and she’s continued to train well, so we’ve certainly been pleased with her.” — NZ Racing desk