Trainers are often creatures of habit and follow something that has worked successful previously.
New Zealand trainer Jamie Richards is following the same program to the one he used last autumn with Probabeel who resumes in the Group 3 Geoffrey Bellmaine Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday.
First-up last year, an underdone Probabeel was successful in the 1200m contest before going on to claim the Group 1 Futurity Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield two weeks later.
It was then onto the All-Star Mile (1600m) at The Valley, but Probabeel was brought undone by a deteriorating heavy track.
Richards, who heads to Hong Kong in April to take up a position among the training ranks there, has followed a similar conditioning program for Probabeel as that of last year.
The now five-year-old daughter of Savabeel had a trial in New Zealand before crossing the Tasman and had a recent jump-out at Flemington.
“Everything has gone according to plan, and she is ready to kick off,” Richards told RSN.
“She’ll obviously improve, she always does first-up but in our opinion, she is where she needs to be.”
After Saturday’s outing, the Futurity on February 26 in next on the agenda for Probabeel followed by the All-Star Mile, this year at Flemington, before she heads to Sydney where the mare is entered for the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) and the Group 1 Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1600m).
Stablemate Kahma Lass also runs first-up in the Geoffrey Bellmaine on Saturday.
Kahma Lass, a winner over 1400m at Caulfield last spring, has followed the same first-up schedule as Probabeel with a trial in New Zealand and jump-out at Flemington since arriving.
“She’s no comparison to Probabeel but she is a good mare in her own right,” Richards said.
“She’ll be kept to those 1200 to 1400-metre mares’ races, just below the top tier once we get her through Saturday.”
