Four-year-old mare Steely Huster recaptured winning form and rewarded her patient owners with a strong on pace victory at Geelong on Saturday.
Ridden by Daniel Moor, the daughter of Reel Steel began brilliantly in the Jokers on Ryrie 0-58 Hcp (1300m) and sat outside the leader Drink Then Kiss before taking over at the 200 metres and racing clear.
Fancied at $6, Steely Hustler responded well to Moor’s urgings and scored by nearly a length from World Action ($6) with the favourite Aureate ($5.50) another 1-1/4 lengths back in third place.
Steely Hustler’s two wins have both been at Geelong.
She won her maiden over 1147m in December 2023, but her winter campaign was cut short when she inexplicably didn’t fire with three unplaced runs.
“She wasn’t the same horse last winter, so we gave her a good break and she is now rewarding her owners who have been very patient,” trainer Jamie Edwards said.
Steely Hustler opened her summer campaign with consecutive seconds at Yarra Valley and had no luck from a wide gate at Ararat in her lead up to Saturday’s win.
Jamie said despite being a highly strung mare and difficult to train, she had always shown good ability.
“It only took her two starts to win her maiden and not many do that,” Jamie said.
Managing owner Jamie Kline bought Steely Hustler cheaply as a yearling for just $5000 at the Inglis online sale in June 2022 and she has now won $53,640.
Her other excited owners are Celal Gurlu, Mark Crough, Brenton Micevski, Jayden Micevski, Putu Sutika, Paul Walker, David Walker, Ricky Skenderis, Byron Kennedy, Terry Kennedy, Mo McLean.