In-form Wangaratta trainer Chris Davis may have just unearthed his next stable star.
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Three-year-old gelding Ourzacracker broke through for its maiden win at Bendigo at the start of the week, but it's fair to say he's fortunate to be here.
Ourzacracker was raised by the family and another gelding in the stable, Koalabull, after his mother, Zamidget, who raced for Davis before being put into foal, developed a major tumour and had to be put down.
Chris' wife, Kirsty, who owns the horse, revealed young sprinter Ourzacracker has quickly become one of the family.
"His mother (Zamidget) was given to us by a gentleman from Kilmore and we raced her," she said.
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"She had a bit of a knee issue and we put her in foal to Redente and when she was not long in foal, she developed a little mark on her side.
"We thought another horse had bitten her or something in the paddock, but it got bigger and bigger and it was right when she was due to foal.
"It was bigger than a dinner plate on the side of her. It was like a great, big open wound and was some kind of tumour.
"We got the foal out okay and the mare was okay, but the tumour continued to grow and we had to have the mare put down when 'Cracker' was three months old.
"He learnt most things from his mother, but then had to adapt to having no mother very quickly.
"He was raised by a gelding (Koalabull) and the family, so he's a bit of a pet."
Ourzacracker is one of four horses by Redente currently in work for the Davis stable and they're setting themselves for a big winter given their tough nature and love for wet tracks.
After placing second on three occasions from its first eight starts and an strong fourth-place run in a quality field at Flemington, the victory at Bendigo for Ourzacracker last Sunday was particularly impressive as it flew to the lead out of the gates and was never headed.
"He very much deserved a win, he's been going really good," Kirsty said.
"He did go extremely quickly didn't he? I think because he's little he can pick himself up really quickly and he seemed to get through that heavy track well.
"There was nothing kicking back from him, he was really comfortable on it.
"It's good going forward into the winter to know that he gets through a wet track pretty easily."
Kirsty added there's no immediate plans for Ourzacracker but is confident they will find suitable races for him in town.
"I think we'll keep him to the 1000m and just jump and run on him now," she added.
Leading mare Just Stellar is one of the stable's eight nominations for Wangaratta on Friday.