“I haven't got enough money to breed every year, so I've only been breeding every other year. So she's got a weanling by Cluster now, this filly and another one in Ben's [Newcastle trainer Ben Smith] stable.
“I went out and saw him last week and he's the pick of the paddock, like this filly was when she was a weanling running round a paddock.
“For some reason I've managed to find just a nice couple of crosses for her.
"It is amazing what [El Dorado Dreaming] has been able to achieve because I was hoping for a stayer.”
El Dorado Dreaming's dad, Ilovethiscity, doesn't even have a home to stand at any more and Smith admits he was as surprised as anyone by the Sires Produce Stakes win.
He always had a high opinion of El Dorado Dreaming, but she has delivered earlier than he had expected.
The Ilovethiscity filly was an $81 winner when she charged over the top of her rivals a fortnight ago. It might have been a case of her getting an uninterrupted run, while the others got in each others' way, but El Dorado Dreaming continues to improve.
“I thought she was really well before the Sires,” Smith said. "I didnt think she could win, but I knew she would run a good race.
“Since then she has just kept improving. Her blood is the same as last time, her gallop on Tuesday was better and she has put on a couple of kilos since the Sires win.
“She is that sort of horse, she just does well in the stable.
“We thought she would be a three-year-old, but every bit of work, and every race, she has coped with it and she has never given us a reason to stop. And I can tell you we have been looking for a reason to stop.”
Smith believes she will be better suited at the mile.
"If anything, I'm happier with her now than before the Sires," he said. "She showed us that she was a good strong filly before that. I would think she will be very strong at the end of the Champagne and they will have to beat her."
It is an unlikely story with self-confessed hobby breeder Pearce enjoying the fruits of her passion for the industry.
“This is all a bonus," she said. "I bred her to be a 1600, 2000-metre horse as a three-year-old and then if she stretched to the 2400, fair enough.
“When I put her to Ilovethiscity I was looking for 1600-2000 [metre] horse. In her first start she got run off her feet, but Ben knows her so well and he was the one who said we might get here.”
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Racing writer for The Sydney Morning Herald
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