Four seasons after Blue Mayhem proved too strong in the Wagga feature race, Tammin emulated her efforts to take home the $3000 first prize.

Finding the lead from box one, Tammin ($2.40 fav) extended away from her rivals and never looked in danger of The Rock couple Brian and Joanne Smith.

She went on to down Zipping Luke ($10.90) by almost six lengths.

Tammin was only fifth in the sole heat of the series last month, but Joanne Smith thought the draw made plenty of difference.

“Box one is always an advantage so you have to use it to your advantage,” Smith said.

Luck was also on her side with heat winner and biggest danger Lace Monster ($3.70) copping a bad check at the first turn and losing all hope.

“That’s racing – good luck and bad luck,” Smith said.

“It was good luck tonight.”

Smith was thrilled to take the win, especially after needing to come up with a Plan B when the final was postponed due to the heat last month.

“It was great, excellent really and it’s been a few weeks coming because of the weather,” she said.

“It is hard to prepare dogs for 500 metres in this weather but she has held it together the little girl.”

Tammin was fourth at Shepparton in between the heat and final.

However Smith thought it was important not to miss out on too much track time.

“We had to give her that run as she missed out last week,” she said.

“We had to pick not an easy race but a hard race for her and a hard distance as she couldn’t trial last week because of the heat.

“You always have to keep in mind the heat with the dogs.”

The Smiths struck a deal with the connections of Blue Mayhem and that is how they secured Tammin and her sister Kalannie.

It’s worked out well with Tammin a winner of three of her 10 starts with two more placings.

Meanwhile Rod McDonald took out the New Year Cup Final (400m).

The Cowra trainer qualified five through to the final and secured a quinella with Take The Apache proving to strong for Hide The Kitty.

McDonald rated the pair his best chances leading into the race, and they almost followed script.

Take The Apache was able to work his way to the lead from a wide box and from there was never headed.

He went on to down his kennelmate by almost four lengths.

McDonald was pleased to take out the other feature on the card, especially after being told Take The Apache may never race again.

“I was probably more happy to see him win as he had a pretty serious injury about 12 months ago,” McDonald said.

“They told us he would never race again but has won 10 races since.”

McDonald was thankful he listened to his uncle Anthony’s advice and was patient with him.

READ MORE