Smart 4-year-old Elusive Tracy gave her young Masterton trainer Aaron Bidlake his biggest thrill in racing when she careered away with the $20,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Insurance Masterton Cup, feature race at the Masterton Racing Club's meeting at Tauherenikau on Saturday.
Bidlake, 30, was confident of a bold effort from his charge going into the race, and even more so when the runner he considered most likely to set the pace over the 1400m journey, Pesciolini, was withdrawn before the start.
Pesciolini had to be humanely destroyed after becoming fractious at the barrier.
That meant experienced hoop David Walsh was unlikely to have trouble finding the front with Elusive Tracy and so it proved, the combination virtually leading all the way and clearing out from their rivals in the home straight to win by three lengths.
Bidlake said the plan to have Elusive Tracy in, or at least near, the lead was hatched on the basis that she was very probably the fittest horse in the race, having just returned from racing twice at the New Zealand Cup meeting at Riccarton, where she chalked up a game third on the first day.
"Most of the horses we were up against were staying types still on the way up and we knew that if we could kick away turning for home they'd be struggling to pick us up. And it worked out perfectly, didn't it?"
Having prepared the versatile mudder Eric The Viking to win an Opunake Cup and a Whyte Handicap, Bidlake has tasted notable success before but what made Saturday's best so special for him was that Elusive Tracy is owned by his "great supporter", longtime Masterton Racing Club member Barry Southey.
"Barry has invested a lot in me and I'm absolutely rapt for him ... he was over the moon," Bidlake said. "And there is something special about winning your own club's big race, it's always something I've wanted to do."
It was a good day for the Southey family, with a former president of the Masterton club in Ray Southey and his wife owning the winner of the maiden staying event, Chrysolite.
Just where Elusive Tracy - purchased at a Ready to Run sale for a now bargain price of $5000 - will race next is something that Bidlake will decide after seeing how the mare pulls up from Saturday's run but everything going well she could head to Trentham for the group one Captain Cook Stakes (1600m) in a couple of weeks time. However, that will only happen if the track is soft or worse as he doesn't see her being competitive in that company on firm footing.
Elusive Tracy is one of just four horses Aaron Bidlake has in work and another of the team, Bella Carolina, also lined up in Tauherinikau and was an unlucky fifth after badly missing the start. "I think she was a certainty beaten, she really flew home over the last bit."
For another local trainer Roger Allen Saturday's meeting was a bitter sweet affair with the unfortunate demise of the very hand Pesciolini followed three races later by the impressive win of Liv'n Paradise in a rating 65 1600m event.
Owned by the Yeah Right syndicate and ridden by Mark Hills, Liv'n Paradise came with a devastating burst to win by a length
Two jockeys - Harry Kasim and Buddy Lammas - managed three wins apiece over the 11-race programme.
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