Pay The Deeler repays the faith of trainer and connections

Dale said the late maturing filly would keep improving.

“She has improved this preparation and it finally paid dividends,” Dale said.

“She needed a bit of time to mature mentally but had shown glimpses of ability.

“The improvement from last preparation to this preparation is significant.

“I think she will come back bigger and stronger again later in the year.”

Pay The Deeler had three unplaced runs for Dale last year before resuming from a 26-week spell in May.

The daughter of Dundeel was having her fourth start since resuming with her previous best effort a second placing at Corowa two starts back.

“She hit the line full of running today which was the most pleasing aspect,” he said.

“She is a lightly framed Dundeel filly and the most pleasing thing she was fairly immature and its taken a while for the penny to drop.

“Patience is vital, especially with younger horses.”

Dale was unsure what Monday’s announcement that the impending border restrictions will have on north-east trainers.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Monday that the border would be closed at midnight on Tuesday to anyone without an approved work permit.

Victorian trainers have been able to race in NSW since restrictions were enforced in March.

Dale had four runners at Wagga on Monday.

“I haven’t had any feedback at this stage whether we will be still able to race in NSW,” he said.

“We have been operation under strict guidelines anyway.

“We have to use independent drivers to transport our horses in NSW and they also have to be transferred over to licenced NSW trainers.

“I would like to thank Donna Scott and Maddy Collins for helping me in that regard.

“We have be following all the guidelines and fingers crossed nothing changes.

“I’m a full-time trainer and racing horses in NSW is a big part of my business.

“I’ve learnt which races to target in NSW and Monday was a prime example with Pay The Deeler a BOBS qualified filly.

“So winning her maiden today in NSW compared to Victoria meant a lot more prizemoney to connections.”

Meanwhile the Geoff Duryea-trained Straover made it back-to-back wins after taking out the $22,000 Open Handicap, (1300m).

Ridden by Jordan Mallyon, Straover unleashed his customary turn of foot out wide on the track to score a comfortable 2.3-length victory over Gentleman Max.