Astute Canberra trainer Matthew Dale had Distillate ready to go for the Snake Gully Cup day riches at Gundagai on Friday.
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A Gundagai carnival rarely passes without Dale enjoying success and it was Distillate ($2.40) who provided the stable with the cash this year.
The former Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained filly made a winning start to her time with Dale with victory in the $40,000 Tooheys Extra Dry Maiden Plate (1100m).
The three-year-old had showed promise in two South Australian starts and came out and thumped her rivals by five and a half lengths at Gundagai.
Dale praised jockey Blaike McDougall for taking luck out of the equation.
"It was her first time our way of going, she'd shown us a fair bit at home," Dale said.
"I just said to Blaike to own the race. There was a lot of speed underneath us but the first plan was to own the race. If we hesitated from out there I thought it could be messy, first time Sydney way of going, going around Gundagai, if you tried to ride a race on her it could have ended up messy.
"But he owned the race on her and after 150 metres it was like he drew barrier one so from there I thought it was a pretty easy watch and good way to kick off her career for me."
Dale is happy with the purchase.
"She popped up at the right time and being a BOBS horse she's going to pretty quickly repay us," he said.
The Kooringal Stud-owned Evanora ($17) ran home for second, with Defiant Heart ($9.50) close up in third place.
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