The 3rd generation quarks are, due to their large masses, highly sensitive probes for new physics connected to the
electroweak symmetry breaking. While top quark pair production requires center-of-mass energies of larger than 350 GeV,
the first stage of the ILC at a center-of-mass energy of 250 GeV can perform precision measurements of bottom quark pair production,
thereby settling the long standing ~3$\sigma$ tension between the LEP experiments and SLC experiment. For this measurement, polarised beams of the ILC are of special importance as they enable the separation of the vector and axial-vector couplings of the $b$-quark to $Z^0$ boson and photon.
Another important precision probe for new physics is triple gauge boson couplings. Thanks to the polarised beams and a much higher luminosity, a significant increase in precision beyond past and present experiments is expected at the first stage of the ILC for the TGCs involving $W^\pm$ bosons.