A RAPID end to a joy ride earned a thumbs up from Bernie Hewitt at the Bathurst Paceway on Wednesday evening.
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His two-year-old filly Iamajoyride won the Ohoka Punter Pace (2,260 metres) in all the way fashion in the opening race of the Bathurst Harness Racing Club's meeting, blowing her rivals away as she sprinted home.
Hewitt rated her nicely early on and when he asked her to pick up the tempo Iamajoyride certainly responded, finishing 22 metres clear.
"She's only a two-year-old filly still, I suppose rising three, but over the 2,200 sorts a lot of them out. So obviously I didn't want to be going too hard that far from home," the Georges Plains trainer-driver said.
"We got an easy first quarter and then she rolled along good speed from there on, a 29 and a 28 last half, so it was a nice effort that last half mile."
Starting as the $1.50 favourite, Iamajoyride showed good gate speed for Hewitt as she was able to cross from her barrier three draw and take up front spot.
Hewitt then eased her off through a 32.4 seconds split for the first quarter of the last mile and as the bell sounded, Iamajoyride was a comfortable five metres ahead of Tulhurst Lover.
With just under 500 metres to run Hewitt took a look over his shoulder then he asked Iamajoyride to give.
By the time she hit the bend she led by 15m and that margin further increased after she turned for home. Iamajoyride finished 22m ahead of Lavros Midas Touch ($4.80).
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"Down the back I just let her slip along a bit because she's a pretty strong filly. After she had a good trip I thought she could run a decent half and you know, I was pretty confident she could run it out," Hewitt said.
"There were a couple back in the field that I thought might come with runs, Ash's horse [Lavros Midas Touch] and Jedd Betts' horse [Limbo Larry], I thought they might flash home, but she got a good break on them."
Wednesday night's win, which came with a free service to Ohoka Punter, took Iamajoyride's record to three victories and three minors from nine starts.
Hewitt will now aim her for a $10,000 heat of the New South Wales Breeders Challenge to be held at Parkes on September 13.
"She's got pretty good race manners now, she's won a few now so she's going pretty good," Hewitt said.
"She's heading to the Breeders Challenge, the heats are in a couple of weeks at Parkes, so I just want to keep her up to the mark now, step her up a bit and hope she has a decent draw and no bad luck."
Iamajoyride's success was one of three for Hewitt's team at Wednesday night's meeting as Make Mine Heaven ($1.80 favourite) and Ulaanbaatar ($1.50) both won with Doug Hewitt in the gig.
