EARNING a maiden win with a greyhound is a great thrill for any trainer but it's an even better sensation knowing it's helping out a great cause.
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When Evil Deed ($1.75, favourite) won on debut for Troy Vella in the Welcome to 2020 Maiden Stakes (307 metres) it contributed $100 to Kennerson Park's bushfire appeal.
All winning dogs starting from boxes one and five - representing the red and yellow colours of the fire service - added that amount to the kitty.
And by the end of the 11-race meeting the club finished with an amazing strike rate of eight winners from those boxes (five from box one, three from box five).
Evil Deed got the cause off to a great start when she led the whole way in her first career start, running home in 17.79 seconds.
Her litter might not have got off to sensational starts but Vella hopes his bitch can buck the trend.
"It's great, and I threw her in blind today as well. She's never seen the track before, so for her to come out and run the time she did is a great effort," he said.
"She's always a bit of ability so to see her do it first up is awesome.
"I only have her out of the litter but I've been told that the others haven't been going so good, so trial-wise and with this race she's looking like the best of them."
Evil Deed shot into clear favouritism thanks to her two trial wins and the inside draw.
With a strong start she was going to be hard to beat.
Vella's runner got away fairly, coming out in line with the bunch, but her effort over the opening 100 metres would prove to be a winning one.
Evil Deed flew past the best starter of the race, Drunken Tabetha, and the two runners would maintain a break over the rest of the field throughout the run.
My Boy Boomer threatened to make a run at the leaders but a check from another runner took him out of the running.
Evil Deed held on to win by two and a half lengths ahead of Drunken Tabetha ($21, Geoff Townsend), with Crow Flies ($7.50, Paul Britt) then best of the rest a further five lengths back.