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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.
Savabeel, leading all categories of the sire standings in NZ, had 47 yearlings sell at last week’s NZB Karaka Yearling Sale for an aggregate of $NZ14,460,000, including the top priced $NZ1.4 million lot.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.