Mark Ward choked back tears on Sunday afternoon when describing what Gadfly's win meant to him and those doing it tough in the drought.
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A jubilant Ward had just seen his tough-as-nails gelding win the $50,000 Picnic Championship Final, a race which has the ability to change the lives of those trainers who travel to all parts of the state to contest events often worth a few thousand dollars.
Gadfly, a regular on the picnic circuit who won features at Trangie, Brewarrina, and Nyngan to help qualify for the rich final, benefited from a fine ride from Brent Evans and rattled home along the rails to edge out a wide-running Free Billy at Dubbo Turf Club on Sunday.
"It's been well documented how dry we've had it out in Condobolin and just having this horse around has given us a bit of a lift from the drought," Ward said.
"We've been happy to go along with the plan and we had the right horse to do the job."
Ward, a great supporter of even the most remote meetings around the state, had tears in his eyes when he said the win and the prize-money which came with it would be a "big help" for him and his team doing it tough.
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While the emotion was running high, the result wasn't an unexpected one for Ward.
Having carried as much as 75.5kg in recent times, Gadfly was back to 65kg on Sunday and that saw he and Evans jump as a $4 chance from gate one.
Evans settled deep in the field as Southern Gamble ($15), Another Plan ($61), and Windcharm ($201) set the early pace.
The Garry Bignell-trained Another Plan led the field into the straight but a dream run along the rails appeared for Evans and Gadfly.
We've got nearly all the owners here and they've stuck with me really well.
- Mark Ward
With nothing but open space in front of them they motored forward while Free Billy was running wide along the fence but also pushing forward.
The race quickly became a battle between the horses on either edge of the track, but there was no slowing Gadfly as he went on to win by one-and-a-quarter lengths.
"That was great. It's wonderful to have a plan come off," Ward said, having targeted the final all campaign.
"I was confident. I knew the weight advantage and set weights would work in his favour.
"We've got nearly all the owners here and they've stuck with me really well and they'd be really happy with this."
The event was contested in front of a great crowd, with a host of owners and families of those all involved all on hand for the feature event.
The bulk of Gadfly's loyal owners come from Condobolin and Trundle.
Ward also had plenty of praise for Evans, who has been riding on the picnic circuit after previously being an apprentice who won Group races in both Melbourne and Brisbane.
"It was a very good ride from a very good jockey who did a great job," Ward said.
Gadfly now has nine wins from 52 starts.
The Peter Sinclair-trained Free Billy was second while third went to Cooee March ($4.60) from the Russell Hogan stables.