The box was ticked for Steve Turnbull and his team at Dubbo Paceway on Sunday as Woodlands Wonder won on his first start for the Bathurst trainer.
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A new acquisition for the stable, Woodlands Wonder was driven to a relatively comfortable win by Amanda Turnbull in the TAB Odds and Evens Pace (1720m).
The win came in the gelding's 14th start and was especially pleasing given a large portion of the new owners are based in Dubbo.
"We knew he was for sale a couple of weeks ago and he went really good last start and a couple of clients of Dad's wanted to buy one so it worked out well," Amanda Turnbull said.
The Turnbulls had seen Woodlands Wonder's potential first hand, as the gelding ran second to the Steve trained-and-driven Prince Parker at Eugowra in his last start for previous trainer Jason Gaffney.
That was his first placing, and he went one better on Sunday when leading from start to finish at Dubbo.
There was little to do for Amanda once she got the lead from gate one, as she set the pace up front.
Williewa Lightning ($6) moved to the extreme outside from deep as the field approached the bell lap and put some pressure on the leader but Woodlands Wonder proved up to the task.
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Turnbull was able to hold off the chasing pack without really breaking a sweat on the final lap.
"He felt good. He showed good gate speed and I didn't want to kick away too much because I haven't done too much with him," Turnbull said.
"He won pretty easy. I didn't have to drive him out much, he was holding them pretty easy."
The winning driver added she was hopeful the win would come as a confidence boost for the Alta Christiano X Erinyes gelding, who won by 2.4m from Impersonate ($15) and Willewa Lightning in a mile-rate of 1:59:3.
So often a dominant force at Dubbo, the Turnbulls only had the one win early on during Sunday's meeting.
Hometown hope Tom Pay drove the first winner of the day, guiding red-hot $1.15 favourite Authoritative to victory for Gemma Rue.
It was a dominant showing from the debutant, who had shown plenty of promise when running second and then first in two recent trials.
He crushed his rivals on Sunday as Pay got to the lead with ease early on from gate five and immediately putting a gap between himself and the rest of the field.
He set a controlled pace up front and when $34 outsider Seelster Shannon threatened to make a move on the extreme outside on the bell lap Authoritative went to another gear.
Authoritative gave his rivals the slip and powered clear, going on to win by 26.4m. Prettyboytom ($9) and Jacobs Thunder ($31) filled the placings.