PARKES reinsman Stephen Dowton combined with Forbes trainer Rod Wenning on Friday to pull off the second long-priced winner in the Western Districts in recent weeks.
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Dowton steered Classy Package to a narrow win in the A.G Souter 3yo Pace (1660m), with the filly saluting narrowly at the juicy odds of $99.50.
The victory came less than three weeks after Lawson's Way, driven by Trent Rue, paid $149 on the NSW TAB when winning a race at Bathurst.
Classy Package went into yesterday's race on the back of a lacklustre performance on debut at the same track, when she galloped twice and was beaten 85m.
Dowton was cautious out of the gates yesterday, not pushing the Million Dollar Cam (USA) x Total Package filly despite her drawing well in gate two.
She settled at the back of the field and at one stage would have been more than 50m behind the leader Always Cheeky ($6.60, Murray Sullivan).
The filly improved two places when a pair of rivals galloped shortly after the start but she only gained ground on the leading runners when the pace softened in the middle stages.
A 28.7s first quarter of the last mile was always going to count against Always Cheeky, despite the Braden Sullivan-trained filly getting an easier time after that blistering opening split.
The middle half of the last mile was run in sectionals of 31.6s and 30.8s, and while Always Cheeky did well to keep her rivals at bay, you could always sense a backmarker was going to make a dash in the latter stages.
Not many would have expected that backmarker to be Classy Package though.
With Dowton showing extreme patience he didn't hook his filly to the outside until the field entered the short home straight but once she got clear running she motored late and nabbed the leader right on the line.
On the post the margin was officially a half-head between Classy Package and Always Cheeky, with Mod Conns ($8.00, Jessica Prior) a further three-and-a-half metres away in third place.
The overall time for the 1660m journey was 2:05.5, which equated to a mile rate of 2:01.7.
Earlier, Sullivan had been on the right end of a narrow result when he piloted four-year-old mare Miss Negativity ($4.50) to victory in the Beta Home Living Competitive Stakes (1660m).
Trained by his cousin Jason Gaffney, Miss Negativity had a half-neck to spare from Flight Express ($4.00, Blair Hurst) with Paddy Carmody ($17.40, Arthur Clancy) running third.
