After entering the straight with a useful two-length buffer, Oak Bridge was able to fully capitalise on his momentum to finish the race off strongly and win ahead of the Archie Alexander-trained Miles Ahead, with the short-priced favourite Uniquely ($1.80) back in third.

The win appeared to catch punters by surprise, with Oak Bridge, who was brilliantly ridden by Christine Puls, sent around a $26 chance.

His eye-catching performance was much less of a surprise to co-trainer Ashley McKnight, who felt the gelding had shown gradual improvement in his previous four starts, after debuting at Echuca last spring.

"His price probably was not indicative of what I thought he could do, he just needed to get to the mile," he said on Racing.com.

"He's a staying horse in the making.

"It was great to get it done today, the plan came off. He's a really nice horse."

McKnight said the plan going into the Wednesday was to take the race on and he was rapt to see the horse settle positively after reaching the lead early in the piece.

"We didn't think there was a lot of speed in the race, I just felt as a horse with the winkers on, he just needed to be asked to get forward and get into a nice rhythm," he said.

"He relaxes great. Christine has done a lot of work on him. He really is a nice little horse, and tough. He's really tough.

"He's going to progress well at 1800m to 2000m after this."

A trip across the border for a metropolitan race in South Australia beckons for Oak Bridge, but McKnight said he would first like to tick off another race closer to home.

"Iv'e always said to to the owner (Tom Shearer) this horse has got a lot of ability, he just needs to get out to his right trip and reward our patience," he said.

Puls, who has ridden Oak Bridge in all five of his starts, was grateful for the support of the McKnights and was confident the gelding could kick-on.

"Ash and Brian have been so loyal, at any stage they could have said let's put a different rider on, but they knew we'd get there once we got to a trip," she said.

"With the winkers on I could take the lead up and I never felt like getting beat.

"I got a couple of cheap sections in there between the 1000m and the 800m and the 600m and when I quickened at the 600m I didn't think they'd get to me.

"With his jump-outs and his trials it has been a good 12 months with Ash and Brian doing this; we've always said 2000m is his go."

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