12 Feb 2022Our pride and joy Probabeel made a fantastic return to racing at Caulfield where she successfully defended her G3 Geoffrey Bellmaine Stakes title.
Trainer Jamie Richards’ conditioning skills were again to the fore when she made her first appearance since finishing a meritorious fifth in the G1 Cox Plate in the spring.
Probabeel will have her next start in the G1 Futurity Stakes, another race she won last season, before a second crack at the All-Star Mile after she was tripped up by a wet track in the 2021 edition.
“We stuck to the tried-and-true method through the Geoffrey Bellmaine and then into the Futurity. She’d had a nice trial here at Matamata and a jump-out so she is in really good shape,” Richards said.
Probabeel settled fourth on the outer and had us on the edges of our seats before she lifted powerfully in the closing 100 metres for rider Brett Prebble.
“She hit a flat patch and was spinning her wheels a bit. They made it a sprint home and her class kicked in late,” he said.
“She had a big weight (60kg) and she’s just a pleasure to ride and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”
Our G1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas winner Kahma Lass also kicked off her campaign in the Geoffrey Bellmaine and we were satisfied with her effort for fifth and less than 3l off her stablemate.
Probabeel is out the Group-performed Pins mare Far Fetched, and the family of the two-time Group 1 winner Savvy Coup and the G1 Flight Stakes winner Never Been Kissed.
She was bought out of breeder Waikato Stud’s draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale for $380,000 by Te Akau chief David Ellis and we were subsequently lucky enough to acquire her after she left the ring.