IT was a happy return to Narromine for Playing Game on Monday, with the Dar Lunn-trained mare scoring her first win in almost a year.
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The five-year-old's last win came at the track on May 25 last year and it took almost 12 months for her to rediscover that winning feeling.
A talented galloper who ran third in the $100,000 Country Championship Qualifier at Dubbo last year, Playing Game won the Benchmark 62 Handicap (1600m) on Monday.
Champion jockey Greg Ryan timed his run to perfection in the race, getting to the lead for the first time inside the final 100m and edging out Oskastar and pre-race favourite Something Borrowed.
"She's had a few runs and had a few issues since she's come back in but she's always shown that she can gallop," trainer Dar Lunn said after the win, Playing Game's sixth from 32 starts.
The pace was slow throughout but Oskastar ($3.80) jumped well early and got out to a two-and-a-half length lead.
Playing Game ($5.50) sat second in the early stages, ahead of Also A Star ($8) and the Justin Stanley-trained Something Borrowed ($2.20).
The lead was eaten into as the race progressed but the Garry Lunn-trained Oskastar still led by a length by the time the field hit the bend for home.
Down the straight it was anyone's race with Clint Lundholm's Farewell Julia ($8) getting to the lead briefly after peeling wide on the bend.
But Ryan found a clear run through the middle of the track and once in front went on to win by a neck.
"They went incredibly slow," Ryan said to Sky Racing after the event.
"The 'toppy' (Something Borrowed) was the hardest to beat in the race and he always wanted pace on so I was happy to go as slow as we possibly could to get a good kick at the straight."
It was part of an early double for Greg Ryan and he went close to completing the treble in the Benchmark 70 Handicap (1200m) with Infinite Bliss but was mowed down by a flying Dark Mojo.
The race was another open affair down the home straight with the field well spread across the track.
After sitting second for much of the journey, Infinite Bliss ($6.50) got past Vision Retract ($26) and Toffee Rain ($9) to hit the lead but Jake Pracey-Holmes and Dark Mojo came storming home after leaving the barriers last.
The Brett Thompson-trained gelding was aiming for his tenth win from 47 starts but received little love from the punters in the lead up to the race and jumped at $26.
But he showed tremendous pace to blitz the field and win by three-quarters-of-a-length from Infinite Bliss and Dar Lunn's Grass Cutter ($5.50).