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It isn’t often that top trainer Adam Trinder gets it wrong, but he admitted he underestimated the winning chance of his four-year-old Need a Gin in a class one handicap over 1150m in Devonport on Sunday.
While Trinder was apprehensive about the gelding's winning chances, punters were obsessed by the trial form and backed him in to start the $3.60 favourite at his first start this preparation.
Need A Gin (Daniel Ganderton) raced handy to the leader for most of the journey and when his rider called on him for the big effort, he forged clear and won convincingly from Gee Gee Rhythm ($31) with Gee Gee Real Deal ($4.40) a close-up third.
"He was here as pretty much a second trial and trying to pick up a bit of prizemoney and to be honest I thought a good result would be to run into a place, but he's done a whole lot better," Trinder said.
"I'm sure he is going to be a whole lot better when he gets over more ground, but for today's effort we'll take it and look to the future with a bit more confidence."
Ganderton secured an ideal spot for the gelding that is cleverly named being by Needs Further from top-producing mare Vickers, the brand name of one of the world's most popular gins.
"We landed in a good spot, and he travelled really well and he's likely to get better when he gets out a bit further in distance," Ganderton said.
Need a Gin has had only six starts for two wins and a minor placing for $50,000 in stakes and went into the race on the back of a Devonport trial win over Egao last Tuesday, which was the effort on which punters based their assessment of the gelding.
It was the first leg of a winning double for Trinder who also saddled up Cheeky One ($7) to win the benchmark 66 handicap over 1350 metres.
It made it a hat-trick of wins for the daughter of Bon Hoffa, and it gave Trinder's stable apprentice, Erica Byrne Burke, a winning double, having won earlier in the day aboard the John Keys -trained Dixie's Boy in a benchmark 60 over 1880m.
Cheeky One was always in a winning spot and when the three-year-old filly needed to be strong she excelled and hit the line powerfully to narrowly defeat Endured ($7.50) that was game in defeat.
