El Roca’s daughter Honey Badger stamped herself as a filly to follow in the coming months after her victory romp at Rotorua.
The Gerry Harvey-bred three-year-old revelled in the heavy conditions on Saturday to thump her older Rating 65 rivals over 1215 metres.
“She put a really good space on them, she’s in for a nice winter,” trainer Tony Pike said.
Another El Roca homebred was also to the fore at Ballarat on Sunday when Kiss My Rock deservedly broke his maiden.
Honey Badger coasted along in fourth spot for rider Matt Cartwright before she picked up ground quickly to be in front before the turn and was in a class of her own in the run to the line.
“She’s come up really well this preparation and has been waiting for some give in the ground,” Pike said.
“We were confident and it was a lovely ride, she had a nice run in behind the pace and got to the front early, but she was going so well.”
Honey Badger’s winning margin was eight and a-half lengths and she now has two victories and three placings from nine appearances.
“Dropping back to 1200 metres really suited her and she made a mess of them,” Cartwright said.
“She loves a heavy track and she’s going to win a few races through the winter.”
Honey Badger was a $30,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale graduate at Karaka where she was offered by Westbury Stud.
She is a sister to the five-time winner and stakes placegetter Miss Cartier with their dam the More Than Ready mare Sacred Vow.
She is a half-sister to the dam of the G2 Great Northern Guineas winner Swissta and the immediate female family of the Listed winner and multiple Group 1 placegetter The Cloisters.
At Ballarat, the Patrick Kearney-trained Kiss My Rock had posted five minor placings on the bounce before his dominant victory over 1600 metres in the hands of Will Gordon.
They settled toward the back of the field before picking up ground across the top and finished resolutely in the straight to score by a length and three-quarters.
Kiss My Rock was bought out of Westbury’s draft at Karaka for $75,000 by Victorian trainer Mick Price and had three runs from his stable before relocating to Kearney.
His dam is the stakes performed Encosta De Lago mare Love And Kisses whose mother Fair Embrace was a multiple Group winner.
Also the dam of the Macau Derby winner Sacred Man, Love And Kisses has an unraced juvenile Telperion filly, a yearling sister to Kiss My Rock and is back in foal to El Roca.