She'd only picked up one win in her career before Wednesday night but Willie's Dollar looked like a star of the future at Dubbo Showground.
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Trained by Peter Lew and with Bathurst driver Mat Rue in the gig, Willie's Dollar was too good for the rest of the field in the Blues Meats Dubbo Pace (1,720 metres).
Lew's mare opted to sit three back from the leaders through the opening stages of the race with Rue showing all his experience.
"She's a few bad manners and a few injury problems so it was good to see her get all right last night as well as having a bit of luck," he said.
"There is nothing like winning at home, we were unfortunate to miss out on the meeting the other night with the lightning so it's good we got to finish a meeting here."
Zacharooni ($11) couldn't keep up with Willie's Dollar as the latter kicked away towards the line to win by more than six metres
Willie's Dollar was Rue's only winning drive of the night but Lew couldn't fault his effort in the win.
"He's a class driver, he drove her to her abilities and strengths," he said.
"It was just really nice to be able to pull it off because there was a very good bunch of horses we were against. She'd only won one race but came up against horses who had won seven or nine races.
"To be able to do that against seasoned campaigners made me pretty happy."
The mare had been close to wins in previous starts, scoring minor place finishes from her 18 previous starts as well as a single victory.
But after Wednesday night's win, Lew confessed he had kept coming up against one man in particular.
"I'd been getting knocked off by Nathan Turnbull nearly every bloody start," he said.
"I said to him in the wash bay 'finally over the last six weeks I couldn't roll this bloke'.
"Everyone has got a pretty good working relationship in the harness racing game, it's good when other trainers congratulate you. They all know how much effort goes into getting a winner so it's good when they acknowledge it."
Looking ahead, Willie's Dollar could be headed up a class in the future and Lew admitted the victor or his career wouldn't be possible without two people in particular.
"The further up in class she gets the better she should go, the races are a lot truer which should suit her racing pattern," he said.
"It's only one race at the moment and could all go downhill at any point so you never know, I work full time so I wouldn't be able to do it without my sons Jett and Hayden who help out a lot.
"Without them, I wouldn't be able to have horses racing."
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