ALL the way down the straight in Wednesday night's fifth event at Bathurst Paceway Steve Turnbull was wondering how much his leader Smooth Baht had left to give.
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That's because stablemate Myra Dawn was breathing down Turnbull's neck, with his son Mitch getting that little bit closer on his tiny mare with every stride.
But it was Steve's race in the For A Reason Pace (1,730 metres) as Smooth Baht ($3.70) held onto the lead that he'd had since the bell, holding out Myra Dawn ($21) by a head with early race leader Our Antonio Rose ($16, Justin Reynolds) coming home third.
After a couple of tough Menangle runs this preparation Turnbull was keen to get Smooth Baht back onto his home track for a more friendlier atmosphere.
"He'd gone [up against] two lots of 1:50 at Menangle in the death seat and he led over 2,300m one night and he'd raced pretty fierce and they ran him down, so I wanted to get his confidence back by going to the bush," he said.
"He ran a really great time tonight considering how cold it is. They got a quarter in 30 tonight but all the rest were around 28 so he's gone a good job.
"I was really happy with the little filly [Myra Dawn] because he couldn't shake her. She just keeps coming at you all the time. She's a lovely little thing too."
Smooth Baht sat in the death seat early before Turnbull took the lead away from Our Antonio Rose at the start of the final lap.
Our Antonio Rose ducked into the sprint lane to mount his challenge but the bigger threat was coming from Myra Dawn, who had sat to her stablemate's outside through most of the trip.
Smooth Baht did just enough to earn his seventh career win at start number 31, scoring his first win at his home track in 19 months.
The winning mile rate was 1:56.6.
Myra Dawn had to settle for a third runner-up finish from her last four starts.
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