Race sponsor Kevin Myers earned his money back at Waverley on Monday when Pencarrow’s Sunset Boulevard (NZ) (Eminent) won the $17,000 Kevin Myers Racing (2100m).

Myers took over the training of Sunset Boulevard earlier this year, and Monday’s Rating 75 race was the four-year-old gelding’s third win from five starts out of the Wanganui stable.

Previously a Rating 65 winner at Waverley on January 29 and at Wanganui on March 15, Sunset Boulevard took his career to a new level with Monday’s victory against a higher class of opposition.

Sunset Boulevard settled in fourth spot and was under a tight hold from jockey Mereana Hudson as Lincoln Star (NZ) (Savabeel) led the field around the track at a pedestrian tempo.

Hudson presented Sunset Boulevard down the centre of the home straight, and he dashed past Lincoln Star in the final 150 metres of the race. Sunset Boulevard went on to win by a length and a half with his ears pricked.

Sunset Boulevard has now had a total of 14 starts for four wins, three placings and $76,705 in stakes. He was bred by Pencarrow Thoroughbreds Ltd and is raced by Sir Peter Vela, whose famous blue and white hooped colours were also worn by Sunset Boulevard’s sire Eminent.

Sir Peter Vela raced Eminent throughout a 14-start career that began in the United Kingdom with a victory at Newmarket as a two-year-old. He added the Group Three Prix Guillaume d’Ornano (2000m) at Deauville and Newmarket’s Group Three Craven Stakes (1600m) as a three-year-old, along with a third in the Group One Irish Champion Stakes (2000m) and a fourth in the Group One Epsom Derby (2400m).

An Irish-bred son of the legendary racehorse and superb sire Frankel, Eminent later travelled to Australia, where he ran second behind Avilius (Pivotal) in the Group One Ranvet Stakes (2000m) at Rosehill. He now stands at Brighthill Farm and has made a promising start, siring 26 winners from 64 runners to date. Sunset Boulevard, Uplifting (NZ), Golden (NZ) and Unequivocal (NZ) have all scored victories in the Pencarrow colours.

The dam of Sunset Boulevard is North of Sunset (NZ) (Red Ransom), who is a half-sister to the stakes winner and Group One-placed Pencarrow mare Wildflower (NZ) (Keeper). North of Sunset is also a blood-sister to the Group Three winner and black-type producer Amaryllis (NZ) (Red Ransom), while her dam Zygadene (NZ) (Zabeel) is a blood-sister to the dam of multiple Australian Group One winner Humidor (NZ) (Teofilo).

Sunset Boulevard’s fourth dam is the multiple Group One winner and prolific broodmare Habibti (Habitat), a half-sister to the legendary Eight Carat (Pieces of Eight).

Sunset Boulevard is the second winner from two named foals out of North of Sunset, who has also been represented by six-race winner Palm Springs (NZ) (Super Easy).