PARADISE Valley lived up to her favouritism to lead from start to finish in Monday’s GBOTA Bathurst Branch Maiden (307m) at Kennerson Park.
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After two frustrating second placings for Portland trainer Nathan Doggett, Paradise Valley ($1.70) finally broke through from box one for her maiden victory.
Rambo’s War ($7.30) was two lengths off in second while Luke ($6.70) was another three quarters of a length back in third.
In a small field of just six, all runners started very evenly.
Paradise Valley and Luke pulled slightly ahead after the opening 50m but it was the former who got to the front before the turn home.
Mister Uate and Yuko Allen wrote themselves out of the equation into the turn when they got tangled up towards the rear of the field, making it a race of four.
Kava Boy lost touch in the turn while Rambo’s War was finishing quickest of all runners.
He had gotten past Luke and was making up ground on Paradise Valley.
It wasn’t enough, though, as Paradise Valley ran home in 17.88 seconds and made her fifth career start a winning one.
Doggett says the late scratching of Lady Reigns in box two helped to give his runner some breathing space in the opening 100m of the race.
“The vacant box next to her helped her out early because she’s not all that crash hot early.
“It gave her enough room to punch up underneath them and get to the front,” he said.
“She’s no world beater but she’s raced by very nice people so I’m just really happy that she won for them.”
Doggett is happy with his runner’s position at the moment and will wait to see more of the same results before changing her program.
“I think the trick was I just had to stop betting on her,” he laughed.
“She’s been unlucky a couple of times.
“She got the good box today and put all the trouble behind her to get her home.
“At the moment she’ll stay around this distance and maybe have an attempt around the 450 later on.
“She’d have to win a couple over the shorts before that happens.”