Richmond Vale trainer Jason Mackay has won a bigger race, but no victories have been more special than Zipping Bailey's stunning finish to give him a first Golden Easter Egg (515m) on Saturday night at Wentworth Park.
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The $12 chance was last from box six when they settled in the $250,000-to-the-winner race but she found an inside run approaching the back straight before capitalising on interference among the leading trio to flash home and win by more than a length in 29.92 seconds.
Mackay claimed the $600,000-to-the-winner Melbourne Cup in 2016 with Ando's Mac but the Golden Easter Egg was a race he had been striving for since before Banner Park in 2001 gave him his only place finish.
"I think last night, it's more that it's your hometown race and one I've chased for 20 years and haven't been able to get my hands on it," Mackay said on Sunday.
"All my family were there, so it was a beauty."
The remarkable last-to-first effort from the Martin Hallinan-owned and bred bitch, which holds The Gardens track record, made the victory even sweeter for Mackay.
"They told me last night she's the only dog in 30 years to come from last to win it," he said. "It was a freakish run. That's the best of the best and she's given them 10 lengths with 200 metres to go.
"In those races, the quicker you get to the front the better. I reckon she was eight lengths off the leader at the winning post the first time, but she wants to chase, she wants to rail and she's got that barnstorming finish and it played into her hands last night."
