A typical little professional from the Waterhouse/Bott stable, the royally bred Snitzel filly Chimes made a winning debut over 900m 2yo maiden at Newcastle on Tuesday.
One of the best to begin for Tim Clark, Chimes travelled sweetly on the outside of Snowdrop before taking control of the race inside the 300 metres.
The heavily backed favourite Heavenly Field (Deep Field) ran her races in patches to go down by one and a quarter lengths at her career debut. The Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou-trained filly will benefit from the experience.
The Capitalist filly Snowdrop was a short-neck back in third.
Chimes had finished a close-up second to fellow Arrowfield homebred Yearning in a barrier trial on March 15 before that daughter of Snitzel finished second to Ashema at Randwick.
“It was the right move to come here off one trial,” stable representative Neil Paine said.
“Tim said that after the trial, she was ready to go to the races.
“I liked her last 100 metres when Tim asked her to go, she really stretched her neck out.
“She is not real big, just a tiny little thing, so hopefully, when she does go for a spell, she will grow and get a bit stronger because the ability is there. Many horses have been small; as long as they have the heart and can gallop, that is a big plus.”
Chimes is the first foal of the imported Shamardal (USA) mare Time Check (USA), although this is a family well-known in Australia.
A winner at Doncaster in four starts for Saeed bin Suroor, Time Check (USA) is a half-sister to Godolphin’s blue hen Essaouira, the dam of Alizee, Astern, Tassort and Mogador.
Her Group II Magic Night Stakes-winning dam Alizes (Rory’s Jester) was exported in 2007 before being repatriated in 2016.
Consigned by Godolphin to the 2017 Tattersalls July Sale, Badgers Bloodstock purchased Time Check for 300,000gns.
From the family of champion Triscay, Time Check (USA) had a sister to Chimes make $625,000 to the bid of Willinga Park Operations Pty Ltd/Australian Bloodstock at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January.
The daughter of Shamardal (USA) has a weanling filly by Snitzel and was covered by The Autumn Sun last spring.
