Perfect Promise racked up another series of firsts in taking the C.F. Orr Stakes (Aust-I) at Caulfield Feb. 11 2006.

Most significantly, the 6-year-old mare’s consummate victory in the $300,000 (Australian funds) feature saw her become the first South African-bred horse to win a group I in Australia or New Zealand.

The 1 1/2 length winner provided the first group I success for jockey Craig Newitt, and was having her first start for her owner Sean Buckley and trainer Lee Freedman.

Sean Buckley paid $725,000 for the daughter of Nureyev horse Caesour at auction in Sydney two months earlier to disperse the horses raced by the Written Bloodstock Syndicate of Mark Peters and Larry King.

It was one of a string of distaffer purchases made in 2006 by Buckley, CEO of the car care franchise company UltraTune. Grahame Begg prepared Perfect Promise for the previous owners. She became the first of her nationality to win an Australian group race in taking the Emancipation Stakes (Aust-II) in April, 2000 from the Freedman barn’s Uprize.