Trainer Luke Price's pre-race confidence was justified when seven-year-old gelding Budderoo Knight kicked in the final furlong, to salute in Tuesday's Benchmark 70 at Kembla Grange.
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Budderoo Knight had spent a frustrating April running at the Randwick-Kensington track, but a three-week freshen-up proved valuable, when he won by more than two lengths.
He may have won eight from 39 starts, Budderoo Knight has proven like a fine wine, improving with age with three wins from his past 12, including running clear of Mick Tubman's Dashley Dubh in the straight, with Brother In Arms third.
Before the jump, Price said he was "very confident" when talking on the Sky Racing broadcast, on a day where it proved difficult to make up ground.
It came after Brad Widdup produced a double in the first three races of the day, three-year-old filly Lagarde kicking clear of the Godolphin odds-on favourite Ariege to win the Class 1 over 1000m by a length.
Lagarde ran in a Magic Millions maiden on the Gold Coast in January, before breaking through at Orange by more than two lengths in March, then running fourth at Hawkesbury most recently over 1100m.
"We threw her in the at the deep end, with the Magic Millions maiden and then won there at Orange," Widdup told Sky Racing.
"At Hawkesbury she had an outside gate and did all the bullocking work, so going back to the 1000m, she had a good kick racing on the speed and was very hard to get past."
It came after Cry Of Achilles overran Gwenda Markwell's favourite Speed And Style in the closing stages to break his maiden at the seventh attempt.
While it may have been a 1200m maiden, Speed and Style is developing a record to match Group 1 bridesmaids Tom Melbourne and Osborne Bulls.
It was her fifth consecutive runner-up placing, including the past two when starting odds-on favourite.
Jockey Keagan Latham had attempted to kick clear on the turn after crossing to lead, but Christian Reith applied the blowtorch to edge clear.
Bulli to host Wenty meeting
Bulli will host a 10-race meeting on Wednesday night after it was transferred from Wentworth Park.
The Sydney track is out of action while undergoing remediation work of the the track and catching pen this week. The meeting will carry the same Wednesday class prizemoney, but be graded a B-meeting.
The first race starts at 7.05pm, with the last on the card running at 10.09pm.
Bulli will also hold their regular Saturday meetings on May 18 and 25.
Meanwhile, Dapto will host the of their fifth grade racing over 520m on Thursday night, with $2500 on the line for the winner.
The heats were held last Thursday.
The Simon Rhodes trained Winnie Allen has drawn the inside box, with fellow last start winner His Ticking, trained by Mark Suttle in box two.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Bulli, Wednesday: 10-race meeting (first at 7.05pm)
Dapto, Thursday: 10-race meeting (7.16pm)
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