Exciting Pencarrow mare Cote D’Or (NZ) (Makfi) added another win to her record with a stylish first-up performance in Saturday’s $40,000 Westbury Waikato Handicap (1200m) at her home track of Matamata.

Ridden by Vinnie Colgan for trainers Ken and Bev Kelso, the four-year-old came from the back of the field to score by a nose in a blanket finish.

“I’ve said from day one that she could be exceptional,” Ken Kelso said. “She’s just kept delivering all the way through.”

Cote D’Or has now had 16 starts for eight wins, four placings and more than $140,000 in prizemoney. She picked up black type earlier this season in the Listed Matamata Cup (1600m), and she is now being aimed at the Group 1 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) at Te Aroha on April 7.

Bred and raced by Sir Peter Vela, Cote D’Or is out of Our Echezeaux (NZ) (Zabeel), the dam of stakes winners Dolmabache (NZ) (Redoute’s Choice) and Pure Elegance (NZ) (Redoute’s Choice). She is also a three-quarter sister to Romanee Conti (NZ) (Sir Tristram), a multiple stakes winner and the dam of Caulfield and Melbourne Cup heroine Ethereal (NZ) (Rhythm).

Cote D’Or comes from one of Pencarrow’s finest families, with Our Echezeaux being a sister to Grand Echezeaux (NZ) – a Group One winner herself, and the dam of Group One winner and top sire Darci Brahma (NZ) (Danehill), as well as the multiple stakes winner and promising sire Burgundy (NZ) (Redoute’s Choice) and stakes-placed Saperavi (NZ) (Stravinsky).