Her seven-year-old, the reigning Banjo Paterson Cup champion, charged to the lead down the home straight in the 2,260-metre feature after enjoying a comfortable trip, reeling in Nathan Hurst’s Saloon Passage which had led for a bulk of the race.

The win, which came in a 1:59.1 mile rate, continued Turnbull’s remarkable run of success in the annual feature.

It was her sixth overall victory and fifth in the last six years, having also won with Cosimo Bromac (2010), My Dusky Sound (2013, 2014), Heza Thrill (2015) and Mouse In The House (2016).

For Parramatta, a gelding by McArdle out of Sheng Li, Friday night’s success was his fifth cup win since moving from New Zealand to join Turnbull’s team.

It added to the Wattle Time Cup (Cootamundra), Banjo Patterson Cup (Orange), Mothers Day Cup (Cowra) and Cherry Festival Cup (Young) victories he posted last year. Turnbull says she’ll look at running Parramatta in Orange Harness Racing Club’s feature again this year.

“He’s won a fair few of them [cup races] because he gets targeted for them. He’s been an awesome horse and was quite cheap too, so it’s worked out good,” Turnbull said.

“His run in the Shirley Turnbull [on December 26] was probably the best this season, he still only came fourth, but he’s going pretty good.”

For the first time since its inaugural running in 2002, the Oberon Cup featured a standing start.

Track record holder for the distance, Aztec Bromac ($2.70 favourite), was given a 30m handicap, while both Parramatta ($3) and Saloon Passage ($3.90) went off 10m.

The handicap ended up working in Turnbull’s favour as it allowed her the space to avoid trouble in what was a chaotic start. 

Dynamite Denn Nee veered sharply right in front of Kenny Dee Dee, who was checked. Both galloped.

Both Tulhurst Ace and Mister Heywood went sideways at the start with the latter, driven by Bernie Hewitt, then running off the left of the track and eventually being declared a non-starter.

Favourite Aztec Bromac, with last year’s winning driver Robbie Morris in the gig, was severely checked by Mister Heywood, losing a load of ground before he again found his stride.

Oh I Am the One landed in front from barrier three, but Hurst worked to the lead with Saloon Passage down the back straight the first time as the field strung out over some 450m.

After the bell Turnbull eased Parrmatta off the pegs, having been five back in the running line, then began her hunt for the lead.

She got it with some 40m to run.

Parramatta won by 4.8m over Saloon Passage, saluting for the 14th time in his 70-start career, while Star Writer ($9.40) was a further 3.4m back in third.

“I was just lucky enough that I followed three that got out pretty good, I was pretty luck there at the start,” Turnbull said.

“I sort of had the option to do what Nath [Hurst] did and go around them, but my fella is not tough enough really to do that. It was a bit of a risk – it looked like a bad drive because I probably could’ve got the front – but I didn’t worry about it.

“I was lucky because it still worked out.”