Alison Smith's Vaquero jumped as a 26-1 chance at Towac Park on Sunday but given the way the four-year-old ran the 1400-metre Class Two Handicap, he should have been a lot shorter.
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The Gelding stormed home at long odds, beating out Larynx and Indiana Wolf to collect his first win since August last year when it won at Dubbo.
The result probably didn't come as a huge surprise to Smith who touted Vaquero as her best chance to win some prize money in the lead-up to race.
Although the bulk of the credit usually goes to the trainer, owner and jockey, Smith deflected a chunk of the praise to a pair of her mates who played a huge role in the lead-up to the win while she was under the weather.
"I want to give a shoutout to Ben and Nat," Smith said.
"I've been a bit crook in the past week and haven't really been on their backs.
"Maybe I need to stay off them after this."
Smith wasn't stoked with the start Vaquero got off to but said he's trained to come back from tough positions and that the result has come after a tonne of hard work and dedication.
"It was pretty tough but a good win," she said.
"He went pretty wide but he's bred pretty well.
"He's got a bit of ability and it's taken a while for it to come together."
"It was pretty good, tough win, he went pretty wide but he's bred pretty well but he's got a bit of ability and its taken a while to come together."
Smith couldn't have been more on the money in the days prior to the event as she pulled the pin on an away trip, opting to stay at Orange in the hope her horse would have fresher legs and benefit from the home-field advantage at Towac Park.
"We were going to go to Coonamble last week but I decided the easier option was to come here and not travel 3.5 hours," she said.
"He's done the job for us anyway."
Smith's other two horses wasn't as fortunate earlier in the day as debutant Mr Magsman ran fifth in the 1000m Maiden Plate before Supreme Gem's form struggles continued as she was the eighth past the post in the 1000-metre Class Two Handicap.
It was pretty good, tough win, he went pretty wide but he's bred pretty well but he's got a bit of ability and its taken a while to come together.
- Alison Smith
Peter Cornish's highly touted Gelding Athena's Voice ran second in the 1600-metre Orange Cup Prelude, losing in a photo finish after jockey Anthony Cavallo helped it storm past the rest of the field, only to fall a nose short of the victory.
Tiffany Jeffries rode Happy Partner ($26) home in that one as the five-year-old mare was the second longest odds in the field behind Orange-based Rockchesta ($41), who's trained by Alex Van Den Bos.
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