Pencarrow’s lightly raced four-year-old mare Candycane (NZ) (Pins) opened her winning account in style at Pukekohe on Tuesday, producing a strong finish from well off the pace to take out the $14,000 Dunstan Horse Feeds 1200.

Tuesday’s race was the fifth career start for Candycane, who had previously recorded a second, a third and a fifth as well as a failure on unsuitable heavy ground.

She was ridden to victory on Tuesday by Jasmine Fawcett, who settled her in eighth position after being only fairly away from the starting gate.

Fawcett angled Candycane into clear running at the top of the straight and the mare quickened stylishly, running down the front-running The Chrome Nun (NZ) (Proisir) inside the last 100 metres and scoring by three-quarters of a length.

Trained by Glenn Old at Matamata, Candycane has now had five starts for a win, two placings and $11,680 in stakes. She was bred by Pencarrow and is raced by Sir Peter Vela.

Candycane is by the late Pins, who had such an influential stallion career at Waikato Stud between 2000 and 2017. He is the sire of 841 winners, 88 of them at stakes level including Group One stars such as El Segundo (NZ), Aerovelocity (NZ), Katie Lee and Madison County (NZ).

Candycane is the fifth foal to race and fifth winner out of Cerberus (NZ) (O’Reilly), who is a half-sister to Group One winner De Beers (NZ) (Quest For Fame) and comes from an exceptional female family.

Cerberus’ granddam is the multiple Group One winner Tristalove (NZ) (Sir Tristram), who is the dam of Viking Ruler (Danehill), Lovetrista (Rock Of Gibraltar), Kempinsky (Danehill) and Diamond Like (Danehill).

Tristalove’s dam is elite racehorse and broodmare Diamond Lover (Sticks And Stones), who herself is a daughter of the legendary Eight Carat (Pieces Of Eight).

Cerberus produced Candycane in the spring of 2018, and her final foal was a colt by Tivaci born in 2019.