Winning Glory held off a fast-finishing Lucripetous to win this afternoon's Group 3 Newcastle Cup, earning himself a lengthy spell in the paddock.
Jockey Nash Rawiller had to squeeze every drop out of Payne's stayer to hold off Chris Waller's charge, and third-placed Peal Of Bells.
Rawiller dropped his whip in the straight after Jim Cassidy had set a blistering pace aboard Tenby Lady throughout.
Cassidy let his mount roll eight lengths clear to the top of the straight but the telling run told in the final furlong where he faded quickly.
Rawiller was left to lead up the rest of the field, and just as he was coming up to Cassidy disaster struck.
“I got the fumbles at the 300 I dropped my whip trying to change it over and thank God he held on for us,” Rawiller said.
“He scares you Jimmy. You know he's going a bit quick and you don't want to go with him but you know he's bloody hard to get past when he does things like that.
“He sucked my bloke in a little bit. To his credit he fought on.
“There were no excuses for them not to be able to run him down.
“There's a good race in him, he's shown that he's held his form up for a long time and deserved the win.”
The David Payne-trained six-year-old has been up for almost a year and the Cup was his 14th run this campaign.
He had three months between runs over the autumn but remained in Payne's stable.
“He deserves a break now the poor bugger,” Payne said after the win.
“He's been up for about 11 months. We haven't sent him out, although the way he's going it doesn't look like it he looks happy the way he is in the yard.”
Payne said he wasn't surprised by Winning Glory's win.
“If you look at his form he deserves it, he's been knocking on the door,” Payne said.
“I said to Nash I'd prefer him not to be in front today, 2300 is a bit suspect so it worked out well. I think he's a 2000m [horse] but if you look at his form he's been chasing some very good ones.
“I don't think he's in the same class as the horses he was racing.”
The South African native said he would not be tempted by the Metropolitan which last year's Newcastle Cup winner Glencadam Gold went on to win following his triumph in this race.
