Temperamental filly Ellessthree did plenty wrong but was still able to notch her first win from only her second career start for trainer Craig Widdison at Wodonga on Friday.
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Ridden by Simon Miller, Ellessthree notched an all-the-way victory when taking out the $37,500 Maiden Plate, (1200m).
Starting second favourite Ellessthree ($4.60) found the front from the inside barrier and led into the home-straight but wobbled out to the middle of the track on the home turn.
Despite hanging for most of the trip and providing Miller with a torrid ride, Ellessthree proved too strong down the home straight to win by 2.75-lengths over longshot Zemgrinda ($21).
Race favourite Carat Time ($2.90) from the Nick Ryan stable finished third.
Widdison felt Ellessthree would take plenty of catching once she found the front despite being in a muck lather of sweat as she passed the winning post.
"She has always had her fair share of ability but she is quite a hot filly," Widdison said.
"So it's been a good job by my team to keep her in a normal capacity.
"Simon (Miller) does a fair bit of work with her and has ridden her a few times in jump outs and trials.
"So it was good to have somebody aboard that knows her.
"When Simon gave her a dig out of the gates and found the front, I thought she was always going to prove hard to beat."
Ellessthree trialled publicly on four occasions before making her debut at Albury late last month where she finished runner-up.
Widdison revealed that Ellessthree wasn't as worked up on debut as she was at Wodonga on Friday.
"Her first run, she handled it quite well at Albury but sometimes these hot one's can even get worked up on their home track and over the top like she did today," Widdison said.
"But we will give her the benefit of the doubt."
Miller felt he had earned his riding fee and winning percentage after returning to scale.
"She's hard work," Miller said.
"I've had the easy job, Ryan Hamilton who is strapper today is the bloke who has to deal with her every morning.
"He deserves a medal to put up with her because she is hard work.
"She can gallop a little bit but she is going to have to start doing things better than that if she wants to go through the grades."
Miller thought Ellessthree may have been vulnerable in the home straight after hanging for most of the sprint trip.
"She hung out the whole way which didn't give me much confidence throughout the run," he said.
"I thought when she wobbled out on the turn that something might get up on the inside and beat her.
"But she is fairly tough, so there is definitely something there to work with going forward."
