O’Reilly filly on a trail of gold after debut win

Babe has earned herself an early crack at a Group race with her impressive debut success at Te Rapa on Saturday. The O’Reilly filly’s first appearance had been delayed by illness, but the three-year-old showed she was well worth waiting for when she beat a tidy field of maiden performers over 1200 metres.

Raced by her breeders WS, Babe had given a glimpse of her talent with a trial success at Cambridge in May before her programme was interrupted. “She copped a virus after that trial and it took her a while to get over it,” trainer Graham Richardson said. “I didn’t give her a trial or a jump-out leading up to this so I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but she is a really nice type of filly. She’s going to keep on improving so we will be looking at the Gold Trail Stakes at Hastings.”

Babe jumped smartly from the gates to trail and she was left in front a long way from home when early pacemaker Bewitched ran off the track. She responded to challenges impressively in the straight and lengthened stride under rider Craig Grylls to account for Clairetheway with Fortaleza and Cha Siu Bao, both touted as possible Group One contenders this season, next home.

“I told Craig to give her a dig out of the gates – you can’t give any of them too much of a start,” Richardson said. Babe is the first foal of the winning French Deputy mare La Belle Femme, who is from a strong North American black type family.