Few people expected Miss Raggedy Ann to win Saturday's Railway Handicap at Ellerslie - including her connections.Miss Raggedy Ann was at $87 for the Group One contest after running 11th of 13 in last Sunday's Newmarket Handicap and her trainer Andrew Scott had been struggling to keep the weight off her.But the Boxing Day run, along with rain earlier in the week which meant the track was not too hard, gave them some hope she might sneak a placing.As it turned out, Tasha Collett found Miss Raggedy

Few people expected Miss Raggedy Ann to win Saturday's Railway Handicap at Ellerslie - including her connections.

Miss Raggedy Ann was at $87 for the Group One contest after running 11th of 13 in last Sunday's Newmarket Handicap and her trainer Andrew Scott had been struggling to keep the weight off her.

But the Boxing Day run, along with rain earlier in the week which meant the track was not too hard, gave them some hope she might sneak a placing.

As it turned out, Tasha Collett found Miss Raggedy Ann a good spot one off the fence behind midfield and she found plenty in the straight to fight off Atapi by a nose.

"It's been a pretty tough six weeks for us," Scott, for whom the Railway was his first Group One win on his own account in New Zealand, said.

"She was running through winter and as the weather warmed she just put on weight.

"But we gave her three runs in the past two weeks and she went into today in better shape."

The Railway was the first Group One win for Collett, who beat her jockey brother Jason and her father Richard, who trains at Pukekohe, to a Group One win.

"I thought she might run a nice fifth or sixth but she got a nice run and gave me plenty when I let her down," Collett, who is not long out of her apprenticeship, said.

It was also the first Group One winner bred by the Llanhennock Trust, run by the Hawkins family of Cambridge, which also owns Miss Raggedy Ann.

The trust bought her dam, the Gold Brose mare Miss Pollyanna, when she was carrying Miss Raggedy Ann.

"Miss Pollyanna was a phenomenal racehorse but she was also nuts," Des Hawkins said.

"We were part of the team which brought in Gold Brose and we really wanted a Gold Brose mare."

Atapi ran second in the race for the second year in a row, just ahead of Tip The Wink.

The Australian visitor Monton, who started favourite, looked to have every chance in running eighth.