DUBBO Turf Club secretary-manager Mark Day has admitted to being pleasantly surprised by figures emanating from the club's first Thursday meeting.
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Including fixed odds betting, Day estimates total turnover will reach $1.2 million and the crowd for the meeting was about 30 per cent higher than the Monday meetings the club usually conducts.
Surprisingly the highest turnover figure came in race five, a Class 2 event won by Atomic Blaze, trained at Coonabarabran by Mick Cox.
The win pool on the race was $78,963 while place betting was also strong, attracting an outlay of $27,815.
"Overall we're pretty happy with how the meeting went," Day said.
"I probably thought there would be a couple of other races where the turnover would have been up but the open sprint only had a small field so that probably didn't help.
"The track, while it was rated a good 2, held up well and there was no bias so every horse was getting its chance and the punters could have a bet with confidence."
Atomic Blaze certainly showed it was possible to win from anywhere, coming from last on the turn to win the Trent's Electrical Service Plate (1405m).
The five-year-old broke a string of three successive second placings when it stormed down to centre of the track to wear down the Peter Nestor-trained Lucky Murphy in the shadows of the post.
Punters, who had been on the money for most of the day, again nailed the race with Atomic Blaze, ridden by Greg Ryan, starting at $4.60 with Lucky Murphy a $2.80 favourite and third-placed Emphatic starting at $3.80.
Treblann ($41.00, Brad Clark) set up a solid tempo up front but at the top of the straight it appeared as though both Atomic Blaze and Lucky Murphy (Kody Nestor) had the job ahead of them.
Emphatic (Adam Gain) was the first to strike, taking the lead half-way down the running before Lucky Murphy emerged and then Atomic Blaze peeled widest to make his challenge.
On the line Atomic Blaze had a half-length to spare from Lucky Murphy with Emphatic a further one-and-a-half lengths away in third place.
In keeping with the theme of the day and the Good 2 track rating, the time for the 1405m journey was a quick 1:21.83s.
The win was the second of Atomic Blaze's 15-start career and took his earnings to more than $25,000.
Meanwhile, the Sue Grills-trained Imeldamay ($2.00 fav) made it a hat-trick of wins with victory in the Henderson's Menswear Open Sprint (1100m).
With apprentice Sarah Young in the saddle, the five-year-old sat on the speed before taking the lead half-way down the straight and holding on to beat the fast-finishing Are You Sure ($3.50, Greg Ryan) by a head with Hewentwhoosh ($4.00, Hannah Martin) a further two-and-a-quarter lengths away in third place.