Ring The Till finally got a little luck with a barrier draw and it made all the difference as the Steve Turnbull-trained gelding won through to the Little Red Jug final at Dubbo Paceway on Sunday night.
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Having raced up in grade recently, Ring The Till arrived at Dubbo having finished no better than seventh in his past five starts.
But when starting from gate one on Sunday, driver Mitch Turnbull was able to get to the lead early and stayed their for the entire 1720m heat.
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It was part of a winning quinella for trainer Turnbull as he drove Joes Redemption to second, finishing 3.3m off Ring The Till.
"The other bloke (Joes Redemption) just lacked the high speed so it was hard to go up," Turnbull said.
"But he (Ring The Till) stuck on well and held on to the line.
"He hasn't any luck with the draws and he's been up in grade so he appreciated the drop in class."
The Amanda Turnbull-trained $1.90 favourite Balducci finished in third place.
Ring The Till's win was part of a race-to-race double for Steve Turnbull, as he drove the hugely promising Im Desirable to victory in the next event.
Sunday night's meeting was a bumper one as the build-up to Friday's Carnival of Cup meeting began.
Two heats of both the Club Dubbo Garrard's Golden Gig Series and the Gallagher Insurance Brokers Little Red Jug were run and the finals will be contested on Friday.
The Richard Williams-trained Amused ($3.70) and Andrew Cassell's My Flying Spur ($17) took out the Golden Gig heats while the other Little Red Jug qualifier was taken out by Alta Downs ($2.50 favourite), driven by Josh O'Shea for Geoff Lawson.
Friday night's main event will be the Group 3 $30,600 Red Ochre Fillies and Mares Classic (2120m), with Turnbull likely to have former Wagga Oaks winner Myra Dawn contest that feature.
The Turnbull team is expected to have a number of horses in at the Carnival of Cups meeting, with Im Desirable likely to return after a blistering win on Sunday.
The two-year-old filly made it three wins from four career starts when taking out the TAB Carnival of Cups Next Friday (1720m) by 8.3m.
Turnbull settled deep after going from gate eight but as the field received the bell for the final lap he made his move around the outside.
Im Desirable rounded up the field with ease down the back straight and she got to the front it was all over.
"She's a nice filly," Turnbull said.
"She's still only young and not much experience but she's got plenty of guts."
A Club Menangle Country Series Heat (1720m) was also run on Sunday and was won by the Brendan James trained-and-driven Zoemagic ($9.50).
The fields for Friday's Carnival of Cups meeting will be released on Tuesday afternoon.