PACING
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BERNIE Hewitt displayed perfect timing on Wednesday night at Bathurst Paceway as he drove Regal Point ($9.20) to the closest of wins in the GC29 2yo Sustaining Payments Due 31 Oct Pace (2,260 metres).
The Bathurst driver snuck up the inside of Keep On Moving ($6.40) to take the win on his four-year-old gelding by a short half head, with favourite Shes So Foxy ($2.30) left 3.3m off the pace in third.
Going out from gate one, Hewitt used the inside to his advantage as he allowed Mitch Turnbull on Keep On Moving to come across and lead while he sat one back on the pegs.
Master Macca also challenged for the lead early on, but was forced to take a sit in the breeze as Keep On Moving showed the speed.
John O’Shea got busy on the favourite as the field went around the opening turn, bringing Shes So Foxy three wide to take the death seat away from Master Macca and put himself in a threatening position.
Down the straight for the last time the favourite couldn’t go on with it after her early work to leave it a race of two.
Hewitt looked like he was easily going to run down Turnbull with 100m left but Keep On Moving found another gear to make a race of it.
Regal Point answered the call to come through for the win in a mile rate of 2:01.7.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d got there in time. I got a bit of a nice surprise when I came back and saw his number up there,” Hewitt said.
“The plan was always to take that easy option. He’s fairly quick off the gate and I thought if I picked the right leader I could sit there and that’s what happened when Mitch came out and held the lead. He got the perfect run.”
The only other win Hewitt’s Ponder out of Tricky Armbro gelding had to his name prior to Wednesday’s start was at Parkes back in April.
After some up and down form of late, Hewitt is hopeful that the win will be the start of a positive run for Regal Point.
“He’s had a few little issues and we’ve addressed them. He hasn’t been steering that good and he’s been a bit sore in some spots, but we’ve addressed all that and he raced a lot more sure today,” Hewitt said.
“He’ll probably just keep racing locally in the short-term.
“He’s been working quite good at home. He missed that run last week, but it didn’t matter as it turns out.
“He’s had a good week’s prep. I was quietly confident that he could run a good race, but I didn’t know if he could win it.”