A half-sister by Hello Youmzain (Fr) to dual Group I winner Mustang Valley, exciting filly Cream Tart is set to line up in one of the major three-year-old races over New Zealand Cup Week following her impressive win in Sunday’s Upper Hutt Car Sales LTD Three-Year-Old (1400m) at Trentham.
The well-bred filly was a standout juvenile winner in early June, before going down to Lubeck when resuming at Rotorua earlier this month. Stepping up to 1400m, she was fancied in a small but tidy field of three-year-olds, which included stakes winners Platinum Diamond, Intention and Bona Sforza.
Cream Tart jumped away positively from an outside gate, with a lack of early speed seeing her land outside the default leader Intention. The speed was no more than an amble as they crawled around to the home turn, setting up a true sprint home.
Jockey Craig Grylls asked for an effort from Cream Tart and she got the better of Intention early in the straight, and despite laying in and showing a bit of inexperience, she was much too sharp, holding out Belzoni by 1 – ¼ lengths with Intention holding on well for third ahead of Abbakiss.
Her trainer Tony Pike now has a decision to make, whether Cream Tart steps out on the first day of the Riccarton carnival in the Gr.1 Barneswood Farm New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m), or wait another week and take on the boys in the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m).
“She’s a very talented filly, still a bit light-framed but we’re in a short run up to the Guineas as many of the three-year-olds are with the way things have gone through the spring,” Pike said.
“I didn’t really want to take on the big guns on Monday in the Sarten (Gr.2, 1400m), so this looked like a nice race ahead of the Guineas. She’s done it well, she still did a few things wrong but as long as she comes through this trip well, I’ll make a decision in the next week or so around which Guineas we head to.
“I thought the boys probably don’t look quite as strong as the fillies at this stage, so there is a chance she could go there.”
The Cambridge horseman was satisfied with her first-up effort on a slow tempo, especially when seeing how she ran through the line on both occasions this time in.
“It was a slow tempo again (at Rotorua), she is bred to run a mile to 2000m and she probably just got outsprinted by a sharper horse on that tempo,” he said.
“She was strong through the line and was again today, so I don’t think the mile will hold any worries for her down at Riccarton.”
Bred by Windsor Park Stud, Cream Tart is out of the New Approach mare Cream Of The Crop, who produced multiple Group One winner Mustang Valley. Pike went to $220,000 to secure her out of Windsor Park’s draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale in 2024.
Following Sunday’s victory, Cream Tart has shortened into $10 on the market for the 1000 Guineas, currently led by recent Gr.2 Soliloquy Stakes (1400m) winner Well Written ($2.80). – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk