A plan put into place before the spring carnival is paying dividends for training partners Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra.
The pair deliberately elected to bypass the better races during the spring with the team now reaping the rewards.
A double at Sandown on Wednesday was their sixth winner since Whistle Baby scored at Moonee Valley on November 28.
“We’ve got plenty in work and we kept saying we were targeting this time of year,” Zahra said.
“The fields aren’t big, they’re not blessed with a lot of talent and if you get the right horse in the right race you can get a cheap race.”
The theory worked when Miss Maggiebeel firmed from $9 to $5 in taking a Benchmark 64 race over 1500m, giving the stable its second winner for the meeting.
The win provided Damian Lane with a double while breaking a two-year run of outs for Miss Maggiebeel.
A daughter of Magnus, Miss Maggiebeel was sporting blinkers for the first time on Wednesday.
Miss Maggiebeel won on debut at Cranbourne in late 2013 and at her third start was successful at Flemington in January 2014.
“The owners of Miss Maggiebeel have been quite frustrated after what she showed at the start when she looked like being quite a nice mare,” Zahra said.
“But she was getting up in the weights and hard to place.
“She’s been so consistent but has taken forever to get into this grade and when they do get there, their class prevails.
“Maybe the blinkers will give her a new lease on life.”
The stable’s first winner Siding Spring made it back-to-back victories.
Zahra said the son of Starcraft may have earned himself a short break with the autumn carnival around the corner.
“He’s still a work in progress but he’s such a lovely horse,” Zahra said.
“Every time you throw him a challenge he keeps stepping up.”
