Good things come to those who wait: 47-race maiden breaks duck with stunning win

If a horse has not won a race after 47 starts, it is generally safe to assume they will retire a maiden.

You would not expect to see it start a well-backed favourite on its 48th start. It is almost inconceivable it would then win by almost nine lengths.

But that's what happened at Murtoa on Monday, when Marikoriko made a mockery of her record in the Scott Smith Landscaping Maiden Plate.

The seven-year-old daughter of Host justified the faith of trainer Belinda Dunn with an eight and three-quarter length romp in the 2050-metre (1m2½f) event.

"I cannot believe after that many runs she was still a maiden," Tatura-based Dunn said in a post-race interview. "Given how many times she's been in a photo-finish for first, I was not going to lay down and die. I was going to win a race with her regardless.

"She trialled last week at Tat [Tatura] and won by half the length of the straight, so we thought we were pretty good today."

The Murtoa win followed a second in a maiden at Seymour last month, when beaten a head.

That is one of five seconds, three of them by less than half a length, for Marikoriko, who has also finished third on six occasions and has now won over A$80,000 in prize-money.

Marikoriko's win was the fourth winner from 20 runners this year for Dunn, who combines training a small team, which currently sits at seven, and cattle farming.

While many would think Dunn might now pull up stumps with Marikoriko, she is not convinced she will retire the winner just yet.

"She's nearly run all her races in SuperVOBIS races and they're the hardest ones [maidens] to win, so I think going to a 0-58 – I don't know what rating she's going to be – but I would like to think she could win one of those."

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