Savabeel’s G1 Winner Claims Second Stakes Victory

Taking his record to six wins and a further seven placed efforts with earnings of more than $1.8m, WS-bred and Magic Millions yearling sale sold Major Beel looked strong to the line on Saturday, recording victory in the Listed ATC Cup (2000m) at Rosehill.

Trained by the formidable Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott partnership, the Rachel King ridden 6yo sat a few horses off the pace but in the straight, exploded to the lead before pulling away to win by more than a length, recoding his second black type victory.

“He’s been quite consistent and needed the right conditions to break through and getting back out to 2000m gave him that chance today,” Bott said.

“He was aided by a lovely ride by Rachel and things really fell into place for him and he made it count.

“We’ve been really happy with him going into today, his two runs at the mile were good but at this stage of his career they’re a bit sharp for him over that distance now.

“The 2000m is his sweet spot and today showed us that he’s set for a good preparation over the Summer.

“All the main staying races are there for him and we have the option of maybe even stretching him out over further as well.”

Bred on the outstanding Savabeel x O’Reilly pedigree cross that has recorded 36 individual stakes winners of which are winners at the elite level, Major Beel is out of the O’Reilly mare Gram, whose daughter Gold Rocks is a winner of the G2 Karakatta Plate (1200m).

From the family of Super Seth’s G1-winning daughter La Dorada as well as the Godolphin raced G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Golden Mile, Major Beel was secured for just $260,000 as a yearling by her trainers in partnership with Bruce Slade’s Kestrel Thoroughbreds.

We are just a few months away from the 2026 NZB National yearling sale where Savabeel will be represented by 35 yearlings, 13 of which will be part of our Book 1 draft, and interestingly 6 of those are bred on the same pedigree cross as Major Beel – view our draft HERE.