Trainer Chris Munce continued his long time friendship with owner Max Whitby when First Crush landed some long-priced bets with a win at Doomben.
Ridden a clever race on the fence by Larry Cassidy, First Crush ($16 into $11) came away in straight to beat Slydini ($4) by 1-1/4 lengths in the Girls Day Out Handicap (1630m).
Don’t Tell Mama ($5.50m) ran on to finish third a long head back.
Munce rode a lot of winners for Whitby-led syndicates as a jockey and the owner has stuck by him when he switched to training in 2015.
“I won a Cox Plate for Max on Savabeel and he has always been a great supporter,” Munce said.
First Crush won a Grafton Cup Prelude over 2250m last campaign and Munce is keen to get him out in distance.
Slydini ran his fifth second in a row and had co-trainer Dan Guy bemused.
“Oh well, at the 100 metres I thought he was going to run third but he kicked on to get second again,” Guy said.
