Bede Murray’s Sure and Fast booked his spot in The Championships Provincial Series Final after producing a dazzling turn of foot to win Wyong’s qualifying race on Thursday.

Sent out a $4.80 chance, Sure and Fast defeated Selectify ($6) and Radical Impact ($31) as all three became the first qualifiers for the $300,000 final (1400m) on day two of The Championships at Royal Randwick on Saturday 11 April. Murray will send Sure and Fast south to the Albury Guineas as a last minute tune-up for the final after Jason Collet produced a gem of a ride. “That was a good feeling,” Collett said. “He hit fifth gear and drew away from them pretty easily in the end.”

Kris Lees was happy to be into the final with runner-up Selectify and said he was hoping to draw an inside barrier on the big day.

“He ran it well and he’ll improve off that run but he’ll need another start before the final because he’s a big gross horse,” Lees said. “The barriers will play a big role in the final, but it’s good to get it out of the way and we can now plan for the final.”

Nick Mitchell, trainer of Radical Impact, said his horse flew under the radar of the punters as he powered home for third.

“He’s three from three at the track and he loves Wyong. They went out on a bit of a limb putting him at that price,” Mitchell said. “It’s such an exciting scheme put on by Racing NSW and it gives us smaller trainers and owners such good chance to race for great prizemoney.”

Wyong’s Provincial Championships Series Raceday proved highly successful with Racing NSW Chief Executive, Peter V’landys extremely pleased with the outcome.

“Obviously betting turnover is a vital performance indicator for the Provincial Championships Series and wagering on NSW TAB for Wyong increased by more than 23 per cent on last year’s meeting.

“Turnover with corporate bookmakers jumped by 34 per cent and with interstate TABs up by 10 per cent compared to the equivalent meeting in 2014, the figures show this concept is being embraced by the punters as well as our participants,” Mr V’landys said.