Thebigbadwolf was certainly doing some huffing and puffing in taking out the opening event at Tamworth Paceway.
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Driven by Anthony Varga, the Mach Three gelding had his first race win at start 62 after leading the field all the way for a 3.9 metre win over Igotcha (Brad Elder) - with Blissfull Identity (Richard Williams) half a neck away in third place.
Now in the stables of Tamworth trainer Tony Missen, Thebigbadwolf had five starts for the stable before his breakthrough win.
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"He was a bit of a sook when he first came to us," said Missen, "but we tried some new race gear on him today [Thursday] and Varg's rated him well in the race."
Varga had his first drive behind Thebigbadwolf and took the win in his stride.
"He was a bit of a surprise but Misso thought he could win the race - we were just hoping to get to the top and get an easy quarter," said Varga.
From barrier two, it was straight to the lead for Thebigbadwolf, who covered the 1609m with a mile rate of 2min 01.6sec and had quarters of 29.8sec; 31.8sec, 28.7sec and 31.3sec.
"He came out of the barrier really good," said Varga. "He did it pretty easy out in front but down the back straight there was a bit of a head wind.
"He was good out in front and at the bell he wanted to go a bit faster which worked out well."
Meanwhile, Maitland reinsman Jake Hughes had a change of luck and drove a winner at the Tamworth meeting after being flung from the gig in the third race of the day whilst driving the Stacie Elliott-trained Our Bushwacker.
Tamworth reinsman Sam Ison, driving Fantasy Money, was also flung from the gig.
The race was rerun after the scratching of Our Bushwaker and Fantasy Money.
"It all happened pretty quick," said Hughes, with both Ison and Hughes cleared to continue driving for the remainder of the meeting.
In the rerun, Scotlynn Jiggs, who is also trained by Elliott, placed in a five-wide run around the final turn to produce a strong run down the home straight and have a 3.7m win over Glen Innes Boy (Elly Chapple) - with $2.60 race favourite Bella Godiva (Michael Formosa) a half neck away in third place.
"I have driven him for plenty of placings," said Hughes of Scotlynn Jiggs, "and I did have a bit of confidence coming here today [Thursday].
"In his last two runs we have finished fifth at Parkes and third at Penrith."
