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Distillate has added another TAB Highway sash to Matthew Dale’s collection after a gutsy win at Rosehill on Saturday.
The daughter of Dissident turned in a terrific performance first-up, leading from start to finish under Louise Day to score by 0.26 lengths.
The three-year-old had two starts for Ciaron Maher & David Eustace, before being purchased privately by Dale's owners.
Since being in Dale's care, Distillate has notched up three career victories and has never finished worse than second.
Matthew Dale was impressed with his filly's performance but admits the lightly raced three-year-old has plenty of improvement ahead of her.
"I thought it was a good strong win," he said.
"She showed good speed to get to the front and switched off when required with the pressure with the favourite outside of her and she gave a nice kick and held them off.
"I thought she still has a little bit of improvement to come, she wanted to lay in a little bit late and she's got a bit of a habit of doing that, so we've got to try and iron that out of her repertoire.
"We may fiddle around with some head gear in between races and try and see how she handles the winkers and may or may not look to utilise those at her next start."
Distillate is one of several new additions to the Matthew Dale yard, including newcomers Meg and Key.
Formerly trained in New Zealand, Meg and Key both competed at stakes level across the Tasman, with the latter finishing second in the Wellington Stakes (Group 3, 1600m) last year.
Meg ran second to a smart one on debut for the Dale stable at Kembla Grange, whilst Key finished sixth in the Denise's Joy Stakes (Listed) and tenth in her most recent start on Saturday.
Dale said although a start in the $1.3 million The Kosciuszko is unlikely, it's not completely off the cards for three-year-old Key.
"She's a three-year-old filly that's been up for a while in New Zealand and we've freshened her and going to give her a few starts here with us," he said.
"I'd say that she would most probably not be there at The Kosciuszko, but we're still getting a handle on where she sits and anything is a possibility.
"Prominent New Zealand owner Gary Harding decided to send a couple across, that being Key, Meg and a couple others that I haven't started yet. He just sent them across for increased prize money.
"I guess they were just looking for different opportunities over here and naturally we can access a wide range of options from here, and a wide range of prize money."
Eight-year-old mudlark Man Of Peace has returned to Dale's Canberra base after finishing his successful campaign on a sour note at Goulburn back in November.
The son of Zariz amassed a whopping $405,000 in one preparation, notching up four wins and a third placing in The Kosciuszko.
Dale said Man Of Peace is close to his first public appearance, with an eye towards another start in The Kosciuszko in 2021.
"He's well, he's coming back from a bit of an injury, some bone bruising and he'll have a jump out in a couple of weeks and then have an official trial," he said.
"We'll just bring him up steadily and then we'll assess where we look to kick him off.
"It's a little bit awkward now with his high rating, he becomes a little bit tricky to place until he comes up rock solid fit.
"We'll trend that way (towards The Kosciuszko), but he's in at the right time of year and he'll have plenty of time to get rock solid fit for it. We will just see how he comes up and assess it as we go, but it's definitely in the back of our minds."
