RACEGOERS didn't have to wait long to witness an upset at Wednesday's Bathurst Paceway meeting as Laurence Dawson's Louis Litt triumphed in the opening event.
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Spoils in the Bathurst Panthers Double & Current Premiers Group 10 Pace (1,730 metres) went the way of Louis Litt ($14), trained and driven by Dawson, who got the better of Dance Away ($1.15, Neil Day) by a neck.
Louis Litt dashed down the sprint lane to continue a promising start to his Australian career.
Since coming over from New Zealand the four-year-old Art Major gelding has won two of his three starts and has gone back-to-back after winning at Shepparton two weeks ago.
"I couldn't have wished for a better run," Dawson said following Wednesday's win.
"I'm really pleased with him. We haven't had him long and I still don't know a lot about him but he's the perfect racehorse.
"We only got him around 10 weeks ago and his form over in New Zealand was pretty good. I have a friend who can pick me a pretty nice horse and he said to me 'I think this horse is worth a go' so we bought him. What he said about him was right."
Louis Litt spent his race parked two deep along the pegs, sitting behind race favourite Dance Away and Classical Music.
He probably needs another run to get to his peak but each run he's had so far has been perfect.
- Laurence Dawson
Dance Away didn't have to do too much work over his middle half (59.7 seconds) and it looked as if the field would be hard pressed to chase down to heavily backed favourite.
Urus ($7, Amanda Turnbull) finished strongly and Lotta Laughs ($81, Jake Davis) battled on well at long odds but it was a race of three in the final stages.
The favourite led the field into the home turn and Mat Rue, who was on board Classical Music, was left with a decision whether to duck inside or outside to make his challenge.
He went for the outside move and that gave Dawson clean air down the sprint lane.
Classical Music couldn't match it with Dance Away but the same couldn't be said for Louis Litt, who was eating into the margin with haste.
Louis Litt got by the favourite just inside the last 100m of the race and pulled further ahead with every stride to win in a mile rate of 1:57.0 - a new career best.
Dawson is confident that the best is still yet to come for his runner.
"When he came over he hadn't raced for a month and he'd been spelled. He's had three runs back and he's probably still coming into his best," Dawson said.
"He probably needs another run to get to his peak but each run he's had so far has been perfect. He's a lowly assessed horse that's been coming up well through the grades."
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