Stephen Edwards has plenty of reason to celebrate after notching up the first win for the local contingent at the Wellington Jockey Club's race meet on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Dubbo trainer took only one of his current three offerings to the meeting, backing Cloud Factory to secure a maiden win in the meeting's brisk 900m Maiden Handicap.
Cloud Factory's form in recent trials saw the chestnut gelding enter as a slim favourite over the Derek Piper trained Tenango and the fast finisher proved why with a confident showing under the guidance of jockey Matt Cahill.
READ ALSO:
An early battle along the fence between the two touted horses gave Cloud Factory the room to settle against the fence, charging hard around the bend and battling with Tenango along the inside while the Bryan Dixon trained and Ken Dunbar ridden Borrowed Time made a move along the outside.
A late surge from trainer Alison Smith's Krissy Krystyna from the middle of the pack gave the two leaders a scare, but it was Cloud Factory's speed and surge that prevailed, pushing the eventual winner past the post a good margin and a half ahead of rival Tenango.
"I'm really happy with him and how he went today, we've only had him for about eight and a half weeks, so he's only been out in the paddock for a few weeks in that time since getting him," Edwards told Sky Racing after the victory.
Cloud Factory, being the progeny of Tremezzo by way of Snitzel, is one of the more highly regarded pedigrees in the western area and Edwards seemed pleased with the standard.
"He's a really well educated horse, he showed some really good stuff at home and he's been great, he's been very easy to handle," Edwards said.
"I got him off the English website and I think I was lucky to get him, a few others just missed out, I kept waiting for someone to outbid me, but they didn't."
Despite the strong pedigree and plenty of promise shown in the fast moving finish, Edwards doesn't have any immediate plans to expand on Cloud Factory's success, but coming in off a lengthy lay-off of 11 weeks has given Edwards some freedom to get Cloud Factory back to work soon.
"We just wanted to see how we went today, but I'll have a yarn to Matty and we'll see what we want to do with him next," Edwards said.
Tenango finished up in second place after entering almost equally favoured with Cloud Factory, while Krissy Krystyna from the Orange based stable of Alison Smith beat out the Bob Howe trained Big Talk for third place two margins behind the winner.