THE connections of Studleigh Becky brought the mare to Dubbo on Friday night to help her return to winning ways and that's exactly what happened with the six-year-old recording a comfortable victory.
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Friday saw a seven-race meeting take place at Dubbo Showground and the night began with Browns Creek driver Leigh Davis implementing a perfect race to get Studleigh Becky home in the Dubbo RSL Club and Resort Pace (2120m).
The Nathan Hurst-trained-and-driven Kyalla Stuart ($15.60) began the $4500 race the best but pre-race favourite Go Scotty ($2.80), driven by John O'Shea, quickly moved to the lead and assumed control of the race.
As they passed the post the first time Go Scotty led by half a length from the Murray Sullivan driven Always Over ($12.30) while Studleigh Becky sat patiently in midfield.
The race order stayed the same during the next lap but as they got the bell for the final time around Always Over edged in front of Go Scotty before they went down the back straight side by side.
But as they approached the bend for home Davis moved Studleigh Becky three wide and she had the fresh legs to power home down the home straight and win by 4.7 metres.
"She's been going really well, she's just had a bit of bad luck at Bathurst so we just thought we'd give her a start here and she got the result," Davis said after the race.
"She's been a good mare throughout her career, she's done the job for us so we'll just keep poking around and see how we go."
Always Over hung on for second while Kyalla Stuart also moved well down the back straight to claim third while Go Scotty ran out of legs and finished at the back of the field.
"I was feeling pretty confident, I was just hoping nothing was going to go wrong but I thought she was pretty safe and we got around the back I thought she was home for sure," Davis said.
With 75 starts and more than $60,000 in prizemoney Studleigh Becky has been a classy racer for some time, with starts at Menangle in the past, and Davis admitted his stable might return south if the good form continues.
"She's getting a few winners around here but if there's a race that is suited to her down there then we might take her down, we've got a few going well at the moment so if they all improve a bit more we can go down and give it a crack," he said.
The second race of the night, the Radio 2DU Pace (2120m), was almost a carbon copy of the first with Nathan Hurst guiding Kyalla Luke to victory.
Kurt Lew began well onboard Curls Toby, as did Murray Sullivan with Montana Maestro, but Hurst made his move during the final lap and had to much pace down the home straight, winning by just over six metres.
