It Might Be You (NZ)
It Might Be You (NZ)
3 f Savabeel – Tootsie by Pins
O: G J Chittick
B: G J Chittick
T: Michael Moroney and Pam Gerard
W: Te Rapa Event Centre Maiden, 1200m, July 24, Waikato Racing Club
It Might Be You (Savabeel), a three-quarter sister to the multiple Group 2 winner Ocean Emperor (Zabeel) and close relation to Probabeel (Savabeel), made an impressive debut on the track when scoring by an easy three and three-quarter lengths on Saturday at Te Rapa.
It Might Be You made a belated debut after tangling with a wire fence as a younger horse and the daughter of Savabeel (Zabeel) had been steadily improving with her trials, including a win in her latest, before producing this stylish performance on the track.
The rising four-year-old shared the early lead before going on to sit second from one furlong out to the 600-metre pole.The filly was still second turning into the home straight and accelerated nicely from the 300-metre mark to have her opponents toiling in behind.
Jockey Danielle Johnson could afford to ease down on the filly at the finish as the well-backed $2 favourite saluted, despite the soft conditions.
“She had quite a nasty paddock accident and the guys at Waikato Stud have been very patient with her. She spent the best part of a year in a box and she has also been a bit slow to mature,” co-trainer Pam Gerard said.
“There was a question mark about the Heavy 10 ground. She is going to be much better on a decent track.
She is closely related to this season’s dual Group 1 winner Probabeel (Savabeel), as her Group 3-winning dam Tootsie (Pins) is a three-quarter-blood sister to Probabeel’s dam Far Fetched (Pins).
Given her high-class family bloodline, you could expect that there is plenty more to come from this Waikato Stud homebred filly and Gerard hinted that she could be headed to Australia to tackle bigger targets in the future. “She’s a filly with a lot of ability and she could well end up over the ditch with Mike,” Gerard said.
This is a family that the stud knows well, with Mark Chittick’s (owner of Waikato Stud) father, Gary, having owned the fourth dam, Georgina Belle (Pakistan II), while Waikato have also bred the first, second and third dams.
It Might Be You is the final foal and fourth winner from five to race for her late dam Tootsie (Pins), who died in 2018, while this was a 56th winner in New Zealand this season for the country’s perennial champion sire Savabeel, who has now produced more than 750 individual winners worldwide.