“She has drawn two at Tamworth so hopefully she will do the same thing [win] again,” said Ison, who trains and drives the four-year-old Big Jim mare.

Bassey will come into the PeterMac Photography Pace off the back of a win at Newcastle last Saturday night.

“Early on in her career she was a bit over the top in her races,” Ison said. “But she is getting a bit tougher now and settling.”

Bassey has achieved all of her five career wins this season with the run of success commencing at Maitland in November last year.

At the Tamworth meeting, Bassey will be shaping up to her 50th race start, in the final event on the 10-race program.

At Newcastle, it was a first win for both Bassey and Ison there and also the mare’s first win over 2030 metres, in taking out the HRNSW Guaranteed Ladyship Pace.

“It was just a shame it was in the last race,” Ison said. “We didn’t get home till 2.30am the next morning.” He added: “She has sat in the death and led a few times so I think she likes the front.”

The Newcastle run saw Bassey commence from the three barrier and she went straight to the lead, with the main danger being Ablissfullgift (Ellen Rixon) racing on his back.

“I think it [Ablissfullgift] didn’t get out early enough and that was to our advantage,” Ison said. “She was on my back and hitting my helmet all the way so I knew she was there.”

With Bassey leading the field, La Patata (Dan Morgan) raced out in the breeze as Ablissfullgift gained a split on the final turn. Bassey held off the challenge by a neck over Ablissfullgift. La Patata was another 4.5m away in third.

“The first quarter [33 seconds] was a walk but the last 800m was the fastest recorded for the night,” Ison said. The other sectionals were 30.4sec, 27.7sec and 29.3sec.

Bassey is raced by Tamworth owners Rod and Di Hazell of Hazell’s Farm and Fertilizer Services.