Coming off a third in her heat last week, the group one winner looked a class above this time around.

Jumping well from box two, Blue Sky Riot forced her way to the lead coming around the first turn and from there was never headed.

Anthony Azzopardi was thrilled with how she returned after an injury lay-off.

“She jumped a lot better and I think she was more suited to being on the inside,” Azzopardi said.

“A dry track really helped her as well.”

Justifying her $1.40 favouritism this time around, Blue Sky Riot went on to defeat King Jeremy by 1¾ lengths in the slick time of 30.37 for the 525 metres.

Sydney trainer Andrew Bell qualified three for the final and the weight in numbers helped him book a final in the next stage at Wentworth Park next month with the one dog.

Blue Sky Riot won five straight, including the National Futurity and Richmond Oaks, before being injured as one of the favourites for the Golden Easter Egg.

The two Wagga runs were her first races since March and Azzopardi is looking to work her back into fitness as part of the new feature series.

Despite being beaten in her heat, she definitely didn’t disappoint.

“I was really pleased with the heat run,” Azzopardi said.

“She has been off nearly six months, and she has had so many major injuries, so I think her first run back was really good.

“It is a big effort coming off a very long spell to come into a qualifier for such a good race.”

While his first visit to Wagga wasn’t quite a success last week the second was.

The Victorian thought coming to the Riverina track as logistically a lot easier even though the bitch had never raced there before.

“It is a bit closer to home for me across the border,” Azzopardi said.

“I thought to go here as it is a bit hard when you have plenty of dogs in work.”

The Million Dollar Chase series continues at Temora on Sunday.

Temora is the only non-TAB club selected to host part of the new concept.

They have three heats ahead of their final later this month.

Azzopardi is a big fan of the new series.

“It is a great concept and gets a lot of good dogs to go around the country areas as well,” he said.

“It gets the people to see them.”

Wagga trainer Ben Talbot qualified two for the final and just missed out on progressing with Zipping Buck in third but did pick up a consolation win with Mr Automatic making it two in a row later on the card.

Kinda Hush also bounced from missing the final for another win.