CANBERRA trainer Gratz Vella may back up High Dude at Wagga's Tuesday meeting after he won a Tumut Mile marred by tragedy on Saturday.
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Raging $2 favourite Contaminated overraced in front after being pestered for the entirety by riderless horse Another Jay Brown, who threw Tyler Schiller off in the early stages.
High Dude was ridden patiently by Richard Bensley a few lengths back in second before proving far too strong down the straight to win by nearly two lengths and set a new track record.
Nick Olive runner Let It Roll broke his leg mid race and had to be humanely put down, which delayed the running of the next race of Tumut's first TAB meeting in 19 years.
After High Dude claimed his first win since May, 2018 and just his third in 29 career race starts, Vella has nominated him for the Benchmark 66 Handicap (1800m) at Wagga, a heat of the Wagga Stayers Series.
"The riderless horse gave the favourite a hard time, it made the race for us I think," Vella said.
"The horse has been itching to win a race for a long time, but getting the right race for him has been hard as his benchmark's so high.
"He was a benchmark 72 when we got him (from leading Sydney trainer Chris Waller) and that's quite high for a Class 2 horse, but Saturday we found the right race.
"He pulled up alright and if he looks OK Tuesday morning I might leave him at Wagga."
Olive was understandably shattered by Let It Roll's demise but said Tumut would have benefited plenty from the meeting's exposure.
"If they present a nice track, which Tumut did, it'd be good to see them have more TAB meetings," Olive said.
"Because of washouts only Sydney and Tumut raced in NSW, being on Sky One on a Saturday is a big windfall for them."
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