Champion sire Savabeel followed his Karaka yearling sale success with a stakes quinella in the Listed Oaks Prelude at New Plymouth on Saturday.
Elate (Savabeel x High Joy by High Chaparral) became the 87th stakes winner for her sire when Roger James and Rob Wellwood-trained three-year-old finished strongly to beat another Savabeel filly Clementina.
His stakes winner tally this season is now 16.
A $270,000 purchase at the 2017 Premier Sale, Elate had already shown plenty of talent this season with a maiden win and a second placing in the Group 3 Eulogy Stakes (1550m) at Awapuni. She also made a strong late run to finish just behind the placegetters in last month’s Group 2 Royal Stakes (2000m).James went to $270,000 to purchase Elate out of Wentwood Grange’s 2017 Karaka Premier Sale draft.
From nine starts, Elate has now recorded two wins and a placing for $55,325 in stakes. She is Elate is now one of the favourites for the G1 New Zealand Oaks at Trentham on March 16.Runner-up Clementina was a $150,000 purchase at the 2017 Premier Sale by Bruce Perry Bloodstock.
• Classy Swiss Ace filly Miss Federer recorded her second stakes win in the G3 2YO Classic at New Plymouth.The Andrew Carston-trained Miss Federer (Swiss Ace x Halobelle by My Halo) previously won the Listed Welcome Stakes in November and passed up the option to start in last week’s Karaka 2YO Classic at Ellerslie.
Carston paid just $NZ10,000 to secure the Nearco Stud bred filly from Book 2 at Karaka 2018.Raced by a big syndicate of owners, Miss Federer has now had five starts for three wins, one placing and $88,410 in prize-money – almost nine times her purchase price.
• Nadeem gelding Air Max made it back-to-back Listed wins when he added the Dunedin Guineas to his Gore Guineas success on Saturday.Air Max (Nadeem x Steel Stilettos by Hussonet ) is trained by Lance Robinson and was passed in with a $20,000 reserve at the 2017 NZB South Island Sale.
He won the $50,000 Gore Guineas at his previous start last month and adding Saturday’s $50,000 Dunedin Guineas at Wingatui takes his record from six starts to two wins and two placings and $70,600 prize-money.Air Max is a half-brother to Boots ‘N’ All (Perfectly Ready), who was also passed in at the South Island Sale as a yearling. He is also a multiple stakes winner and has now amassed more than $NZ262,000 in earnings.
Another half-brother, a colt by Super Easy, sold for $45,000 during Book 2 of Karaka 2019.• White Robe Lodge-based sire Raise The Flag provided his seventh stakes winner when the 5YO gelding Orepuki Lad won the Listed Dunedin Gold Cup at WIngatui.
Orepuki Lad (Raise The Flag x The Star Gazer by The Gladiator) beat Aboli (Darci Brahma) by three lengths.