Major Beel snapped a 17-month win drought that dated back to his triumph in last year’s Gr.1 Australian Derby (2400m) when he returned to Randwick and took out Saturday’s A$160,000 City Tattersalls Patrick Campion Handicap (1600m).

The Savabeel gelding scored his fourth win from an 11-race career when he took out the Australian Derby in April of 2023, but his next eight starts produced a solitary placing in last spring’s Gr.2 Chelmsford Stakes (1600m).

Major Beel showed encouraging signs in two trials leading into his return to racing on Saturday, and the five-year-old confirmed that was right back at his very best with an outstanding first-up win.

Sent straight to the lead by jockey Tim Clark, Major Beel dictated terms throughout the Benchmark 94 handicap and kicked hard in the straight. Challengers lined up across the track to try to reel him in, but Major Beel kept up a strong gallop and held on to win by a head.

“Obviously he was a Derby winner at three, but he just went missing on us a little bit as a four-year-old, which they can sometimes do,” Clark said. “I’ve been really pleased with how he’s come back and the way he’s been working. He’s filled out a bit more. He’s always had good desire, and he needed that today.”

Major Beel has now had 20 starts for five wins, six placings and A$1,640,500 in stakes.

“We’ve had some fantastic memories with this horse,” said Adrian Bott, who trains in partnership with Gai Waterhouse. “I’m just not quite sure how to place him or profile him at the moment.

“Obviously it’s good to see him back here today, resuming over the mile and showing good tactical speed. That was a tough effort, the way he had to fight on. I thought he showed plenty of sprint late.

“The way he started to quicken just before the turn, I was filled with a lot of confidence. Even if he’d been run down, we would have been very satisfied with that performance. But for him to keep finding the way he did under his 60kg, it shows plenty of merit.

“I know he got away with a Derby as a three-year-old, but I’m not sure how far we’ll go with him in this preparation. He could even stay around that mile or 2000m range.”

Major Beel is the first foal of the unraced O’Reilly mare Gram – a daughter of the Gr.2 Karakatta Plate (1200m) winner Gold Rocks, whose daughters Gold Fever and Gold Rush both won the Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) as two-year-old fillies. Their half-sister Calaverite was successful at Listed level as a juvenile in the Gimcrack Stakes (1000m) and St Albans Stakes (1200m), and she is the dam of Caulfield Guineas (1600m) winner Golden Mile.

Major Beel was purchased out of Waikato Stud’s draft at the Gold Coast Yearling Sale for A$260,000 by Waterhouse, Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds, with the Matamata farm remaining in the ownership.