Regally-bred gelding Sarti has a long way to go to live up to his breeding, but he made the perfect start to his career when winning impressively on debut at Tauranga on Thursday.

A son of champion sire Snitzel and Group One-winning mare Guiseppina, Sarti was bred by Sir Peter Vela, under his Pencarrow Thoroughbreds banner, and races in his familiar blue and white silks for trainers Ken and Bev Kelso.

The Matamata couple have taken a patient approach with the four-year-old, who has had three trials prior to his debut, with his latest being a winning performance over 800m at Pukekohe last month.

Despite his breeding and promise, there was greater fervour surrounding fellow debutant Pilates in the Keith Stringer Maiden 1200, with the three-year-old filly backed into a $1.40 favourite on the back of two trial victories late last year.

From his outside draw, jockey Vinnie Colgan took Sarti straight back to settle at the rear of the field. Turning for home, Colgan was able to extricate his charge off the rail and work their way to clear running room out wide where Sarti unleashed a good turn of foot to run over the top of his rivals to win by a length over Deep Pursuit, with a further length back to Pilates in third.

“He drew a bit niggly (8) and we elected to go back,” Colgan said. “We were going to be happy with him punching through the line, and he did a bit more than that, so it was pretty impressive.”

Ken Kelso was also impressed with Sarti’s debut display.

“I wouldn’t say it is a surprise. His trials have been okay, but trials are trials,” he said.

“We have just had to wait for him, he is a big, lean machine and has taken time, but he has always shown ability.

“I told Vinnie to let him find his feet, get him balanced up and hopefully he can find the line, and that is what he did.”

Kelso has tasted plenty of success with horses he has trained for Sir Peter Vela, most recently Group One performer Supera, and he is hoping Sarti can reach similar lofty heights.

“We have had a lot of luck for Sir Peter and it is good to get another one,” Kelso said. “Hopefully he can go on and be as good as some of the others.”

While he holds high hopes for Sarti, Kelso said he will continue his patient approach with the gelding.

“He is a four-year-old and a gelding, so we will just take our time with him and he will go through the grades,” he said. “Hopefully he will keep developing as we go along.”