ELMORE trainer Keith Cotchin was able to breathe a sigh of relief after the luckless Brackenreid scored an overdue win at Echuca on Tuesday night.
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The five-year-old gelding picked up his first win since early April, coming from last to first to edge out Ideal Suspect by a head, with the Julie Douglas-trained Schouten Island grabbing third, narrowly ahead of Roslyn Gaye in a blanket finish.
The victory ended a run of 10 starts without a win for the son of Western Terror, who has won 10 of 66 starts and been placed 23 times.
As his win and place strike rates suggest, Brackenreid has earned his reputation as an 'honest' performer, albeit with some limitations, according to Cotchin.
"He hasn't had much luck of late and he still didn't have a lot of luck last night (Tuesday)," he said.
"If something is going to go wrong, it will happen to him. He'll be in the wrong place at the wrong time, it's just the way things are.
"He's a nice, honest horse. He probably just lacks that little bit of gate speed, which costs him a bit. He gets himself into positions he probably shouldn't be some times.
"If he had that gate speed, he'd be a really nice horse.
"When they go like they did last night and they run along in a true run race, he's always thereabouts."
Cotchin, who has Exciter entered at Bendigo tonight (Wednesday), said Brackenreid had again been nominated for next Tuesday night's meeting at Bendigo, with his eventual target being the Vicbred Championship (NR 70 to 79) heats at Melton on October 23.
"Hopefully, that all pans out as he is much better than his form reads," he said.
Cotchin revealed his former juvenile star Betternbetter was recovering from laser surgery on his throat and would hopefully return to work in about five weeks.
The four-year-old gelding has not raced since a disappointing 11th at Ballarat in late August, with his performance indicating something might be amiss with the former Group 2 Vicbred Platinum Home Grown Classic Pacing Colts and Geldings Final winner.
"I was disappointed with his form and he ended up having an operation on his throat - we found a problem with his wind," Cotchin said.
"He'll have five weeks off and then we'll get it rescoped and then start again.
"It was quite good in a way to find something wrong because it gave us an explanation as to why he wasn't going as well as we know he can go.
"It was frustrating. We won a few with him and then we got down to that harder mark, it started to tell a bit.
"It's not a long recovery, but hopefully, that makes the difference and we can get him back to form."
Meanwhile, the Shelbourne training partnership of Kate Hargreaves and Alex Ashwood unveiled their promising two-year-old Tay Tay with stunning results.
In arguably the most eye-catching performance on the card, the Rocknroll Heaven filly showed her rivals a clean pair of heels to win by 11.7m from the heavily-backed Twisted Bliss ($1.50 favourite), with Okinwa Beach in third.
It was the stable's 70th Victorian success this season, with Ashwood claiming the winning drive.
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