TALK about a debut to remember.
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Just Ernie unleashed a brilliant, sustained burst of speed at the Bathurst Paceway on Sunday to come from the rear of the field and snatch victory from the favourite in the TAB Odds and Evens 2YO Pace (1,730 metres).
Phoebe Betts, who was in the gig for Perthville trainer Chris Frisby, knew she had spotted the front runners a substantial advantage - Just Ernie was more than 20m off the pace when he began his charge.
But she had confidence in the Maffioso x Quiet Talker gelding.
"He had a lot of ground to make up, but he was coming and he felt like he had a lot in his legs," she said.
"Halfway down the straight when he was just still doing it pretty easy I thought I had it covered then.
"That's pretty promising yeah, especially first start from a bad draw."
From his wide barrier seven draw, Just Ernie dropped back to the rear of the field early on.
It was Drive To The Beach who led the way, holding a five metres advantage as the bell sounded. Just Ernie was 20m from the leader.
While Betts then guided the $7 chance on a three wide move, at the 400m mark he was in sixth and still had around 15m to make up. But Just Ernie kept coming.
Inside the final 50m $3.50 favourite Mach Daddy hit the front, but Just Ernie snatched the led from him in his final strides to win by 1.1m. The result also continued Betts' good run of winning drives.
"It's been awesome, Chris has been really good to me," she said.
Betts will be in the gig for Frisby again on Wednesday night in the second round of Western Region Championship heats.
She will drive Our Uncle Jim in the last of the 2,260m qualifiers. She hopes going from barrier one will help him advance after he ran sixth in the first round of heats.
"He been going pretty good and he's got the draw this week, so hopefully he gets a bit of luck," she said.
