Royal Turbo, who was entered for the race by accident, pulled off one of the upsets of 2016 when he led from the first turn to score a comfortable win in Saturday night's Group 3 Christmas Gift final at Wentworth Park.
A fifth grader, Royal Turbo was only in the December 10 heats due to an oversight by owner-trainer Glen McKinley.
"I forgot to tick the appropriate box to indicate I did not want Royal Turbo in the heats but he led all the way at cricket score odds in that race as well,'' McKinley said on Saturday night.
"I have long had a good opinion of this dog but I thought taking on the likes of Brad Hill Billy and Bessy Boo would be flying a bit high.
"Now Royal Turbo has come out and won the final, again at a bolter's price.''
After the box draw for the final the former NEW ZEALAND thoroughbred trainer declared he was pleased to get box eight with Royal Turbo.
"That will suit him,'' he said, "because he won't have any other dogs crowding him on his outside.''
McKinley bought Royal Turbo as a puppy from breeder Harry Sarkis, who trained the Gift winner's dam Addicition, a handy middle distance performer.
The Chappelow family, long-time stalwarts of the sport, had a night to remember on Saturday when father Ken and son Craig landed their first Wentworth Park treble.
Craig started the ball rolling with Expressive leading all the way in 30.21 and took out the Free-For-All with Vintage Rox in 29.93, fastest time of the night.
Dad Ken captured the final event with Vintage Rox's litter brother Vintage Power in 30.68.
Although Expressive's time was not as quick as Vintage Rox's figures, his second and third "splits'' of 13.69 and 17.80 had racegoers agog.
"Expressive got a bit tired but that was to be expected because he suffered a slight hamstring injury when he was unplaced at Wenty on December 3 so on Saturday was having his first start for a fortnight,'' Craig Chappelow said.
"He was very fresh which is why he was able to go so fast in the middle stages, and I am toying with the idea of taking him to Gosford for the Group 2 Woy Woy Poultry Gold Cup heats on December 27.''
Mainline Osti put a disappointing trip to Melbourne behind her with an impressive nine lengths win in a personal best 30.07 on Saturday night.
Owned and trained by her breeder Ashley Dwyer, Mainline Osti zipped past Aisle Tifi approaching the first turn and won by nine lengths.
"I sent Mainline Osti down to Anthony Azzopardi's kennels for the Sandown Laurels series in late November but she went awful,'' Dwyer said.
"The holiday down south though seems to have done her the world of good because she went like a rocket tonight.''
See you next week
