Creative Hero will be set for Perth’s autumn classics after leading home a feature race trifecta for Bob Peters in the Challenge Stakes LR at Ascot on Saturday.
The untapped 3yo also became the 191st individual stakes winner by Vinery legend More Than Ready.
Peters and his wife Sandra race Creative Hero and they filled out the minors with Regal Power (Pierro) and Final Hearing (Reset). “We bred them all, brought them up and got them ready for this,” Peters said. “The WATC Derby is the idea. There’s a race every two weeks from now until then.”
The first three home are all trained by Grant & Alana Williams.
Peters won the WATC Derby with More Than Ready filly Dreamaway when it was a Group 1 in 2011. His other More Than Ready stakes winners include Perfect Reflection (Kingston Town Classic Gr.1), Ideal Image (La Trice Classic Gr.3), Moreish (WA Oaks Gr.3), New Image (Belmont Oaks LR) & State Prosecutor (Belmont Guineas LR).
Creative Hero’s dam Imaginative (Bianconi) is a half-sister to Group 1 champion Old Comrade and she has a yearling colt by More Than Ready and is back in foal to Vinery sire Star Turn.
Champion jockey Willie Pike got first run in the straight to pinch a winning break over stablemate Regal Power in the Challenge Stakes. “We had to do a bit of work to cross into the one-one and from there it was all good,” Pike said. “I probably put him into the race a little too soon because he does tend to stargaze. But he fought them off and I didn’t think they would catch us in the last 50 metres.
“I love his attitude and he was my pick of the trio because winning form is good form.”
Creative Hero complete a hat-trick on Saturday after priors at Bunbury and Ascot in January. The Lex Piper Stakes LR on March 2 is the next stop leading up to the $400,000 WATC Derby Gr.2 on April 13.
