Horse of the Year Probabeel (NZ) Retires

17 February 2022

Probabeel (NZ) after her victory in the 2020 $1m Karaka Million 3YO Classic.

Cambridge Stud owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay have announced the retirement of their phenomenal performer Probabeel (NZ) (Savabeel). 

Bought by Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis for $380,000 from the Book 1 draft of Waikato Stud at Karaka 2018, the Jamie Richards-trained superstar won 13 of her 29 starts and more than $4.6 million in stakes. She was a four-time Group One winner and is New Zealand’s reigning Horse of the Year.

Probabeel was a superb first-up winner of the Group Three Geoffrey Bellmaine Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield last weekend, but she was found to have a suspensory ligament injury to her off fore leg on Wednesday morning.

“While we are both so disappointed at the news, we are eternally grateful for the unique role that Probabeel has played for Cambridge Stud and our family for the past four years,” Brendan and Jo Lindsay said in a statement on Wednesday.

“She came on the scene at the beginning of our time at Cambridge and has been a constant flagbearer for everyone. We are sad that it has come to an end but look forward to getting her home and to racing her progeny over the next ten years.”

Probabeel was a standout from the very start of her stellar career, winning the $1m Karaka Million 2YO (1200m) at Ellerslie at her fourth career appearance in January of 2019. She added the $1m Karaka Million 3YO Classic (1600m) the following year, and she remains the only horse to ever complete the Karaka Million double.

Her stardom then stretched across the Tasman, where she won the Surround Stakes (1400m) in Sydney as an autumn three-year-old before adding the Epsom Handicap (1600m), Futurity Stakes (1400m) and Might And Power Stakes (2000m) over the last 18 months.

New Zealand Bloodstock congratulates the Lindsay’s and Te Akau Racing on enabling her astonishing career and wishes them all the best as she enters the next stage of her life as a broodmare.  

Vendor Waikato Stud
Purchaser Mr DC Ellis (Te Akau)
Breeding Savabeel – Far Fetched
Sale Lot 203, Karaka 2018 Book 1, $380,000
Bred by G J Chittick