HER name is Semi Sensation, but if you ask driver Doug Hewitt about the six-year-old mare he'd probably agree you could drop the first part of her name.
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On Wednesday night at the Bathurst Paceway Hewitt drove the Michael Muscat trained mare to victory in a career best 1:55.5 mile rate, extending his run of success aboard her.
"She 's got heaps of ability, I think me and her together now have won four out of five and the other one was down at Menangle up in grade and she went super," Hewitt said.
"She just gives you the best feeling, Micky has got massive raps on her and always has her right. Full credit to him, I love sitting behind her."
Racing over the 1,730 metres trip in the opening race of the Bathurst Harness Racing Club's meeting, it was clear Semi Sensation wanted to lead after the green light was given.
The Mitch Turnbull driven Ideologist had began well from barrier six, but Semi Sensation kicked through from barrier three and her inside line saw her take the front. She covered the opening quarter in 27.7 seconds.
Hewitt was then able to back the pace right off through a 32.2 split for the second quarter, Semi Sensation's lead over Ideologist around half a length as the bell sounded.
"She felt super coming out of the gate and she's not a horse you want to rip around and rein back," Hewitt said of the early speed.
"She wanted to keep rolling around that turn, so I just let her keep her balance and she's just the sort of horse that gives you a beautiful feel when she comes back underneath you.
"Once she got that that 32 down the back she feels like a monster. Mitch come up on the outside and she just grabbed the bit and she felt like she had two laps left in her."
The speed came back on at the 650m mark and while Amanda Turnbull's favourite Wattlebank Lass ($1.35) punched forward from the one-one in pursuit of the lead, Semi Sensation was in control.
She peeled off splits of 28.1 and 28 on the run home to win by 6m over Wattlebank Lass.
"There's a bit of a head wind down that home straight and I knew Amanda had to get going early so I knew there'd be the favourite coming off our back," Hewitt said.
"But once she come off and kicked she wasn't making ground and I was confident."
It was the 10th win of the Mr Feelgood x Left Laughing mare's 59-start career but her fourth in five starts since joining Muscat's stable.
