Exciting Pencarrow mare Pearl Of Alsace (NZ) (Tavistock) added a second victory to her perfect record with a highly impressive performance in Saturday’s $50,000 Hiremaster Premier (1600m) at Trentham.

The four-year-old had made a winning debut in a $14,000 race at New Plymouth on November 18, and trainers Shaune Ritchie and Colm Murray raised the bar significantly for her second appearance – a special-conditions maiden race on the undercard of Trentham’s Group One Captain Cook Stakes (1600m) meeting.

But Pearl Of Alsace was up to the task, enjoying a rails run in behind the leaders before quickening powerfully down the straight. Responding to the urgings of Melbourne-based jockey Mick Dee, Pearl Of Alsace hit the lead with 200 metres remaining and kept going strongly to the line to score an emphatic victory by a length and a quarter.

From two starts, Pearl Of Alsace has now had two wins and $36,590 in stakes.

Pearl Of Alsace was bred by Pencarrow and is raced by Sir Peter Vela. She is by outstanding former Cambridge Stud sire Tavistock (NZ), who has been represented by 40 individual stakes winners including Group One stars such as Tarzino (NZ), Tavago (NZ), Entriviere (NZ), Pinarello (NZ), Volkstok’n’barrell (NZ), this year’s New Zealand Derby (2400m) winner Asterix (NZ), and Hong Kong superstar Werther (NZ).

The dam of Pearl Of Alsace is Irion (NZ) (Danroad), who won four races and also placed in the Group Two Rich Hill Mile (1600m) and Group Three Cuddle Stakes (1600m).

Irion is a half-sister to the Group One performer Octapussy (Octagonal), dam of Group Two winner Pussy Willow (NZ) (O’Reilly), Group One-placed Pussy O’Reilly (NZ) (O’Reilly) and Listed performers Inside Agent (NZ) (Stravinsky) and Caricature (NZ) (Power).

Another half-sister, Riesling (NZ) (Last Tycoon), is the dam of multiple stakes winner and prolific broodmare Valpolicella (NZ) (Red Ransom), whose progeny include Vavasour (NZ) (Redoute’s Choice), Vilanova (NZ) (Commands), Celebrity Dream (NZ) (Thorn Park) and Rondinella (NZ) (Ocean Park).

Pearl Of Alsace is the second winner from two foals to race out of Irion, who is also the dam of Ipso Facto (NZ) (More Than Ready) – a winner at Cambridge in June of this year.

Irion has subsequently produced filly foals by Zoustar and Super Seth. The Zoustar filly was bought by Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis for $475,000 from Book 1 of Karaka 2022, while the Super Seth filly will be offered by Pencarrow Stud as Lot 253 during Book 1 of Karaka 2023.