Pencarrow mare Blushing Beauty (NZ) (Sacred Falls) continued her strong start to the 2022-23 season with victory at Rotorua on Thursday – her second win from her last three raceday appearances.

Leading into the $14,000 Campbell Infrastructure (1560m), Blushing Beauty had picked up two placings from her two starts in August, then produced a powerful finish to score a maiden win at Matamata on September 21.

She was unplaced when she stepped up over 2000 metres in early October, but dropping back down to 1560 metres on Thursday brought her right back into winning form.

The five-year-old was ridden by Niranjan Parmar and was in no hurry through the early stages of the race, drifting back to settle at the rear of the field.

But she hooked to the outside in the straight and sprinted the best through the final 200 metres, running down Mahomes (NZ) (Tavistock) and winning by half a length.

From nine starts, Blushing Beauty has now had two wins, a second and a third, earning $20,380 in stakes. She is trained by Steven Ramsay and Julia Ritchie, was bred by Pencarrow and is raced by Sir Peter Vela.

Blushing Beauty is by former Waikato Stud stallion Sacred Falls (NZ), an outstanding winner of the Group One New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) and two editions of the Group One Doncaster Handicap (1600m) before a short but influential career at stud.

He is the sire of 114 winners from just 197 runners, with his star performers including Group One winner Aegon (NZ) and perennial Sydney big-race performer Icebath (NZ).

Blushing Beauty is the first foal to race out of Pink Bubbles (NZ) (Pins), who herself was a winner over 1200 metres.

Pink Bubbles is out of Madame Echezeaux (NZ) (Montjeu), an unraced half-sister to multiple Group One winner and sire Darci Brahma (NZ) (Danehill), Group One placegetter and sire Burgundy (NZ) (Redoute’s Choice), and stakes performers Echezeaux (NZ) (Encosta De Lago) and Saperavi (NZ) (Stravinsky).

The third dam is the Group One winner and extraordinary broodmare Grand Echezeaux (NZ) (Zabeel), and this is also the famous family of the likes of mighty mare Ethereal (NZ) (Rhythm) and her mother Romanee Conti (NZ) (Sir Tristram). That makes Blushing Beauty’s Rotorua victory especially timely, coming within a week of the 21^st anniversary of Ethereal’s Melbourne Cup (3200m) triumph.

Since producing Blushing Beauty in the spring of 2017, Pink Bubbles has had a filly by Sweynesse, a colt by Sacred Falls and a filly by Eminent.