SCARLET Babe survived a big scare from a surging Ziggy Rocks to win Sunday's feature Billy Soo Memorial Blayney Cup (2,400 metres) by a half head.
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The biggest race of the Blayney meeting appropriately had one of most exciting finishes of the day, as the Bernie Hewtt-trained Scarlet Babe ($4.20, Jason Hewitt) had just enough left in the tank to stave off Gemma Rue's Ziggy Rocks ($8, Mat Rue), who flew home from the rear of the field.
Scarlet Babe took her win tally into double figures with the narrow success and picked up the first victory of this preparation, which began in September.
It's the second biggest win of the Western Terror mare's career, behind only her Group 3 Red Ochre Classic triumph at Dubbo back in May.
"She's a quality mare but has been below her best of late. She ran well in this one and it was a bit of an improvement," he said.
"We'll probably take her to Dubbo now then back up for the Red Ochre, which is a nice race, and has been upped to a $50,000 race this race. That's coming up on the first of December, because they've rescheduled it.
"Jason decided to go forward from this one because he said she felt nice and balanced from the gate. She had to do a fair bit of work with one underneath her but that's a lot of credit to the mare for still being there at the other end of the race.
"A lot of them can't soldier on like she did so that's a meritorious effort in my book."
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Jason Hewitt drove Scarlet Babe out hard from gate five in an attempt to reach the lead but inside starter and favourite Rockn N Rolln ($3.70) made her earn it.
Scarlet Babe eventually came across to lead the race but the duel for control of the race had stretched the field out.
The field came back together when Hewitt applied the brakes, with Rockn N Rolln settling behind Scarlet Babe and Mister Haywood running in the death.
Kellie Munro made the first of the moves on board Uncle Peter but was stuck three wide for more than an entire lap as Mister Haywood kept up the pace.
Mister Magic Man and Ziggy Rocks tracked up well behind Uncle Peter but they had a lot of work to do in order to bring down Scarlet Babe.
Ziggy Rocks came home with a head full of steam, five wide around the field, but just ran out of room to stop Hewitt's mare.
Sams Express finished an unlucky third after being left with nowhere to run along the pegs.
Jason Hewitt has now had three drives on Scarlet Babe, for two wins and a second placing.