STAWELL mare Spanish Vixen scored a convincing win in the Seppelt Salinger Great Western Cup on Saturday.
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The $3.60-favourite defeated Six Beat, $8, from the Anne McGrath stable by 1.8 lengths to claim the $15,000 feature over 1850 metres.
Damien Williams-trained Tube, $7, finished third.
It was the five-year-old's second win from as many starts after she saluted in a 0-68 race at Penola earlier this month.
Trainer Paul Jones was confident heading into the race.
"She'd been racing well, in good company without much luck," he said.
"I took her over to Penola so she could have a win. It was a good confidence boost for her.
"I was sure if she was ridden well at Great Western then she could win that too."
Jones said apprentice hoop Lily Coombe rode the race well.
He said Coombe worked Spanish Vixen up outside the leaders on the home turn.
"Coming into the straight, Lily asked her to knuckle down and she did," he said.
"She was too strong for them. It was a good win in the end."
Jones said he would wait to see how Spanish Vixen pulled up before planning her next outing.
"I'll also have to see what rating she gets, but we might look at some of the other country cups," he said.
Jones said he was pleased to claim a cup so close to home.
"The Great Western cup is an iconic race in the region," he said. "It's great to have a horse good enough to be in it and to be able to support the club.
"The club does a great job and the track was in excellent condition."
Great Western Racing Club secretary Michael Barry said the committee was thrilled with the day.
"The weather was perfect, the fields were almost all full, we sold all of our marquees and we had a record number of people camping," he said.
"All the comments from owners and trainers were that the track was fantastic it was a good, even track with good grass cover."
Mr Barry said he was pleased with crowd numbers.
"I think we were just under the 2000 people were hoping for, but we well and truly met our target," he said.
"We're still waiting on the final figure, but we estimate numbers were up from last year by a few hundred."
Mr Barry said cooking demonstrations from Masterchef winner Emma Dean and live music from the Jimmy Cupples band were among the highlights.
"We had a lot of entries in the boat regatta that was a lot of fun and there were more than 100 people in the fashions on the field competition" he said.
"There were some fantastic entries and some sensational prizes. The categories were hard-fought."
Mr Barry paid tribute to the club's hard-working volunteers.
"The club is composed of volunteers, so without them we couldn't run the meeting," he said.
"The club is over the moon with the day.
"Next year will be even bigger and better although I'm not sure how we're going to top this year yet."