ANOTHER local win occurred in the Horsepower Class 3 at the Muswellbrook Race Club on Monday with the Dale Wagstaff-trained Two Ducks Artie ($3.60) bringing up his fourth career victory.
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The six-year-old, ridden by Andrew Gibbons, was rewarded for his consistency with a dominant two and a quarter length win over the 1450m.
Gibbons put in a great front-running ride to secure the triumph on the heavily-supported gelding.
"The plan was to lead but he's not always comfortable getting out of the gates," he said.
"He anticipated it well today and I was able to dictate terms from the front.
"I gave him a breather around the 150m mark - and he had plenty of fuel in the tank to finish off strongly."
Muswellbrook mentor Wagstaff said he had never been concerned about Two Ducks Artie's fitness.
"He's done a lot of racing," he explained.
"He's been going really well without winning and just unlucky barriers and things like that.
"[Today] he got a good barrier, went to the front and didn't look back.
"I left it all up to Gibbo.
"He knows what he's doing, and it panned out really well."
Wagstaff said the gelding had previously raced well on the Muswellbrook track, with two starts for a second and third.
"He does like it here and got everything to suit him today," he stated.
The winner earned plenty of late support, backed in from $11 to $3.60. Achi Baba ($7) trained by Grant Marshall was second, over Prescott ($31) from the Tess Wilkes stable.
