Pencarrow-bred and owned filly Cortado (NZ) (Sepoy) may have earned a black-type assignment with a strong maiden win at Ellerslie on Monday.

The filly, trained by Peter and Dawn Williams and Paul Richards, produced a strong finish along the inside of the track to prevail in a close finish to the Beko 1200. Her breakthrough win came at her second start, having run third on debut behind the talented Hall Of Fame (NZ) (Savabeel) at Pukekohe.

“Most of our horses are going out for the winter now, but I said to Garry (Cossey, Pencarrow racing manager) that if this filly picked up a win in her next couple of starts we might look at the Ryder Stakes on July 30. Whether that’s still too far away, we’ll wait and see.”

Cortado became the first New Zealand winner for Sepoy (Elusive City), the champion racehorse who won 10 of his 12 starts including the Group 1 Golden Slipper, Blue Diamond, Manikato Stakes and Coolmore Stud Stakes.

The filly is out of the Night Shift mare Macchiato (NZ) – dam of stakes winner Harb and from the family of Filante Etoile, Vega Sicilia and Valbuena.