Leading jockey Michael Walker produced a superb ride to guide Snogging to victory in Saturday's Bendigo Gold Bracelet (1400m).
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First-up from a spell, Snogging looked in trouble when she was three-back on the inside rounding the home turn.
However, Walker weaved a passage along the rail and Snogging ($21) sprinted quickly to reel in Clarice Cliffs ($9) and Twitchy Frank ($8) on the line.
"Coming to the straight all I could see was bum, bum, bum, bum, and all I needed was a bit of grass, grass, grass to get out,'' Walker said.
"The best rides and the best horses are winning today as the track is very fair. They have obviously had a lot of rain or watered a lot as it has a lot of give in it."
Trained by Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, Snogging now has earnings of more than $260,000.
"She's got fantastic first-up form, she had a gleam in her coat and paraded so well,'' Young said.
"I don't know why she was such big odds. Perhaps she just flew under the radar.
"It was a great ride. At the 300m mark I thought we were going nowhere. She's trialled really well and in her jump outs she was under a hold. She's been galloping the house down.
"I thought she'd settle third or fourth (in the run) but got further back."
Young said future plans for Snogging were up in the air because of the uncertainty surrounding racing an coronavirus.
"We want to get black-type but it's a day-to-day prospect in planning now,'' she said.
"We're sort of in limbo. We just have to hope that racing keeps going.
"We've been extra diligent each morning. We spend an extra hour after trackwork wiping everything down; door knobs, light switches, everything. We don't want a case of COVID-19 here.
"We just have to hope that if the worst happens and we can't race that the training centres can stay open. It's not like people at home who can just take their dogs out for a walk. These horses need care and continual work.
"For the punters, too. They need something to watch. It's as much for human morale, too."
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