Valuable Stakes Win for Savabeel Filly

Well-bred Savabeel filly Elate (NZ) scored the first stakes win of her promising career in Saturday’s Listed $55,000 FastTrack Insurance Oaks Prelude (1800m) at New Plymouth.

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).

She found herself in an awkward wide position on Saturday as the pace was taken right out of the race, and rider Cameron Lammas decided to charge forward to take the lead.

Elate dominated the race from there, sprinting again in the straight and racing clear. She scored by a length and a quarter from fellow Karaka graduates Clementina (NZ) (Savabeel) and Jakkalbomb (NZ) (Jakkalberry).

“In the Royal Stakes she actually ran a faster last 600 and 400 metres than the Railway (Group 1 sprint) winner on the same day,” said Roger James, who trains in partnership with Robert Wellwood.

“She has a lovely group of owners who are very supportive of our stable (Colin and Helen Litt), so it’s great to get this result for them today and we’ll carry along a path towards the Oaks.”

Elate is now one of the favourites for the Group 1 New Zealand Oaks (1600m) at Trentham on March 16.

From nine starts, Elate has now recorded two wins and a placing for $55,325 in stakes.

Runner-up Clementina was a $150,000 purchase at the 2017 Premier Sale by Bruce Perry Bloodstock. Third-placed Jakkalbomb was passed in with a reserve of just $10,000 as a weanling in 2016, and she has already earned more than $30,000 in prize-money.