Amanda Turnbull's New Zealand import Perfect Cut far too good for Bathurst field

His rivals never stood a chance.

Amanda Turnbull's smart New Zealand gelding Perfect Cut ($1.04 favourite), making just his second start in Australia, looked like he was out for a practice pace as he won the Bourkes Horse Rugs Pace (1,730 metres) by 13m.

"I had him set for a race at Menangle this week with other three-year-olds but we weren't allowed there so we just raced him here because he needed to run somewhere," Turnbull said.

"I'm not sure what we'll do with him now but we'll probably just poke along here with a race every two weeks.

"The owners and the trainer sent him over because I'd done a good job with Bundoran and he's the same sort of breed, and they're kind of hyperactive horses.

"They think they're a bit better around girls so that's another reason they sent him over. He's definitely got a couple of tricks.

"How he'll go just depends on where his brain takes him. He's got to settle down a lot but the ability is definitely there."

Perfect Cut won just one of his 20 starts in New Zealand but connections saw a lot of potential in the Lincoln Royal three-year-old and wanted to give him a chance with the Turnbull stable.

He finished fifth on Australian debut on August 7 at Menangle and had a juvenile feature event lined up at the metro track before a move to regionally-restricted racing wiped those plans out.

Turnbull then went looking for a race at home that could just keep her gelding's legs ticking over while figuring out what to do with the promising runner further down the line.

Wednesday's race couldn't have gone much more smoothly than what it did for Turnbull in the gig.

The gate six start posed no problems whatsoever for Perfect Cut, who came across to the pegs in the race lead before the opening turn.

Perfect Cut had an opening quarter of 27.9 but Turnbull quickly slammed on the brakes with a 31.3 second quarter.

With no one challenging her lead after such a calm sectional it was going to take an upset of mammoth proportions to stop Turnbull's talented gelding.

Perfect Cut broke away from the field to record a win as easy as they come, coming home in a mile rate of 1:56.7.

Turnbull finished the night with three victories, also succeeding with Sweet Heaven and Balducci.

Sweet Heaven worked forward in the early stages to take up the running in her race, while Balducci stormed home late to pip Hes Chiming on the line in a speedy 1:53.8 mile rate.

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