Earning a maiden win is a great thrill for any trainer but it's an even better sensation knowing it's helping out a great cause.
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When Evil Deed ($1.75, favourite) won on debut for Troy Vella in the Welcome to 2020 Maiden Stakes (307 metres) on Monday evening it contributed $100 to Kennerson Park's bushfire appeal.
All winning dogs starting from boxes one and five - representing the red and yellow colours of the fire service - added that amount to the kitty.
And by the end of the 11-race meeting the club finished with an amazing strike rate of eight winners from those boxes with five from box one and three from box five.
One of those from the inside box came in the final race of the evening too, when Molong trainer Geoffrey Townsend picked up a win with $2.60 favourite Drunken Ollie in the Ladbrokes Cash Out Stakes (307 metres).
In the first though, Evil Deed got the cause off to a great start when she led the whole way in her first career start, running home in 17.79 seconds.
She's never seen the track before, so for her to come out and run the time she did is a great effort.
- Troy Vella
Her litter might not have got off to sensational starts but Vella hopes his bitch can buck the trend.
"It's great, and I threw her in blind today as well. She's never seen the track before, so for her to come out and run the time she did is a great effort," he said.
"She's always a bit of ability so to see her do it first up is awesome.
Evil Deed shot into clear favouritism thanks to her two trial wins and the inside draw.
With a strong start she was going to be hard to beat.
Vella's runner got away fairly, coming out in line with the bunch, but her effort over the opening 100 metres would prove to be a winning one.
Evil Deed flew past the best starter of the race, Drunken Tabetha, and the two runners would maintain a break over the rest of the field throughout the run.
My Boy Boomer threatened to make a run at the leaders but a check from another runner took him out of the running.
Evil Deed held on to win by two and a half lengths ahead of Townsend's Drunken Tabetha ($21), with Crow Flies ($7.50) then best of the rest a further five lengths back.
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