Reece Maguire made the most of a trip home for Christmas, picking up a winner at Leeton on Boxing Day.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Maguire moved to Queensland 16 months ago, but picked up a drive for father Phil aboard Demeter on Thursday night.
First up from a spell, the mare made it two wins on the trot with an impressive display.
Finding the early lead from the good draw, the four-year-old was able to lead all the way to to clock a fast mile rate of 1:58.1 for the 2147 metres.
Maguire was pleased with her performance.
"I thought she was really, really good," Maguire said.
"She had a good last half, they ran along and they went a good time.
"I think uncle Steve might have underestimated her a bit to be honest, but to her credit she fought on well.
"She was first up and is only going to improve hopefully."
It was quite the family affair in the The Irrigator Pace with uncle Stephen Maguire third on Major Roll while girlfriend Madi Dux was fourth aboard stablemate Cavalryman.
With Demeter ineligible to race at Leeton's Carnival Of Cups meeting on Wednesday, the plan is to head south in the hope of picking a Vicbred bonus.
The New Zealand-bred mare is eligible to win a bonus this season and Maguire believes she's capable of doing so despite now being a national rating 70.
"We're going take her down to Victoria and try to win a bonus with her," he said. "It would have been nice to know earlier as she is a bit higher graded now but I think she will win it at some stage."
Maguire recently trained his first winner in Queensland and heads to Mark Dux's stable for a fresh start on his return.
Meanwhile Victorian trainers took out two of the three heats of the Golden Apple Super Store series.
Daniel Jack returned to the return with three-year-old filly Im Delightful scoring a tight win while his cousin won the second with Salvator Mundi.
Soho Beijing won the other one for Paul Kahlefeldt.
Rockita made it two wins in a row to take out the first heat of the Milbrae Quarries series for Saul and Bayley Duck.
The second was claimed by Rocky Branach for Ellen Bartley and Blake Jones.
Both $15,000 finals will be run on New Year's Day.
Jones also combined with David Kennedy to win the Menangle Country Series heat with Betterthantheboyz before winning the last with Master Jude for Col Thomas.
The hat-trick follows on from success with Kennedy at Shepparton on Christmas Eve with Georgie Martin making three wins from as many starts in Australia.
READ MORE