Half-sister to Group 1 star targets more Queensland riches for the family.
When Tony Pike got Cheval D'Or into his stable, it would have been understandable if his thoughts immediately turned to the Queensland Winter Carnival.
The three-year-old filly is a half-sister to The Bostonian, who provided the canny Kiwi horseman with three of his five Australian Group 1 wins.
The Bostonian's final Group 1 win came in the 2020 Canterbury Stakes (1300m) in Sydney, but the year before he announced himself at the highest level with wins in the Doomben 10,000 (1200m) and Kingsford Smith Cup (1300m).
Twelve months earlier the son of Jimmy Choux won three races in Queensland, including the Group 3 Sunshine Coast Guineas (1600m) and the Listed Daybreak Lover Stakes (1200m).
Cheval D'or will look to provide the family with another Group 1 success when she contests Saturday's $700,000 Group 1 Queensland Oaks (2200m) at her first Australian start.
"We had a lot of fun with The Bostonian in Queensland, it was probably his favourite place in Australia, although he did manage to grow a leg wherever he got off the plane," Pike said.
"He gave us a lot of thrills with his two Group 1 wins in the same season in Queensland and he was unbeaten up there as a three-year-old.
"We're hoping she does the same."
The Bostonian is not the only member of the family who is a multiple Group 1 winner with his and Cheval D'or's dam, Keepa Cheval, a half-sister to King Mufhasa.
He won a Futurity Stakes (1400m) and Toorak Handicap (1600m) at Group 1 level in Australia, plus eight elite-level races in his homeland, which earned him NZ Horse of the Year honours in 2009 and 2012.
King Mufhasa, although by Pentire, raced beyond 1600m just once in 62 starts, when second-last of 13 in the 2100m Listed Great Northern Guineas Prelude at his seventh start, while The Bostonian was never tried beyond a mile.
Pike realised early Cheval D'or, a daughter of this season's Victoria Derby-winning sire Almanzor, was cut from a different cloth and her debut came in a 1400m on December last year.
The NZ$420,000 Karaka purchase had another start over 1400m before going to 1600m with her past three starts coming in Group 3 races of 2000m or beyond.
Cheval D'or broke her maiden in the most recent of those, the 2100m Trelawney Stud Championship Stakes at Pukekohe on April 22, which left Pike comfortable in his decision to bypass the 2400m Group 1 New Zealand Oaks, which was won by subsequent ATC Oaks winner Pennyweka.
"She is probably peaking at the right time," Pike said.
"We missed the New Zealand Oaks and it looks like the right decision at this stage."
Cheval D'or has the services of leading Kiwi rider Michael McNab in the 18-horse Queensland Oaks, in which they will start from the second-widest barrier if the emergencies do not gain a start.
