Well-related four-year-old mare Vamos Bebe broke maiden ranks in style at Avondale on Wednesday over 1200m.
The Trelawney Stud-owned daughter of I Am Invincible had finished second at her two starts prior to her breakthrough win.
Trained by Jamie Richards, the mare travelled like the winner a long way out under a positive Danielle Johnson ride.
“She has always promised to do that,” Richards said. “Her trials and her first two runs have been good.
“She’s a filly that has battled with a couple of immaturity issues but hopefully now as a four-year-old she is passed all of that. She has obviously got a lovely pedigree, she is a very good type of filly and hopefully she can continue to improve from here.”
Out of the Group One winning miler Hurtle Myrtle, Vamos Bebe is an older sister to multiple Group Three winner Holyfield, who holds multiple Group One nominations for trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace this spring.
Richards will looks to step the mare through the grades before contesting better races.
“We will just potter through with her,” he said. “If she was a three-year-old it would be a little bit different, but we will just take it one step at a time. We will find a Rating 65 1200m race for her and have a chat with Brent and Cherry Taylor of Trelawney Stud and make some plans.
“Hopefully she is going to be in a better race at short notice. She still travels quite keenly and is a bit green and immature yet, but she is on the right path.”
“It was a nice win and I saw her at the track the other day and she looks great,” said Trelawney managing director Brent Taylor. “It’s taken a long time to get to where we wanted to today, but we’ve always known she’s had lots ability.
“This time last year she was our biggest hope going into the season, but others thankfully stepped up in her place and hopefully she can shine in her own right this season.
“Jamie (Richards) has been patient and from his perspective it’s good to have owners that see the long game. She’s always shown us plenty, so it’s not hard to wait for horses with a ton of ability.
“Cherry and I picked her out as a yearling in Sydney, and she actually passed in through the ring. We went back and were able to buy her from her breeder, Kevin Maloney at Segenhoe Stud, with the aid of their general manager Peter O’Brien, who is a very good friend of ours, and we secured her for our racing team.
“She’s a beautiful filly, outstanding at the sale, but had a slight X-ray issue which are just the perfect ones for us to buy because we’re sellers as well as buyers and forgiving on a number of things. And Holyfield probably helps as well, having won a couple of Group races and he looks a promising three-year-old colt going into a hot spring. She’s a cracking type and hopefully she proves us right.
“Jamie (Richards) is an outstanding young man to deal with and fashioned a record second to none for blokes his age in New Zealand. We’re lucky to have him and it’s an absolute pleasure to have horses with Te Akau and David (Ellis) and Jamie and all the team there.
“I’ve always found him wonderful to get on with and it’s very rare in this business that you find a person of his ability and they’ve got no ego – no axe to grind. It’s all about training horses and doing the best possible job, and working in with people, which is a really fantastic attitude to have.
“We’ve also given Jamie another I Am Invincible filly, just turned two, and she’s already been through the stable, looks pretty nice, and home for a spell.” -NZ Racing Desk, Te Akau Racing