After finishing unplaced in his first two starts for the stable, Ronaldo backed up a win at Wagga for success on the metropolitan program.

Ronaldo has shown he's got plenty of tricks in his arsenal but produced the good late to storm away from his rivals.

"He's a good horse and he did it pretty easy in the end," Painting said.

"Plan A was to go forward but when the horse in the death got pulling and kept Blake (Jones, on Nowhere Creek) out there I went back.

"It probably looked a bit worse on video as he wasn't actually that bad to drive.

"He was wanting to go forward as well but once we got in on their backs he settled really good.

"Once he settled I always thought he would be too quick for them."

The four-year-old is owned by Leeton's Mick Boots.

Going on to win by 3.5 metres, it was part of a Riverina quinella with Nowhere Creek holding onto second after doing plenty of work for Blake Jones and Ellen Bartley.

Meanwhile Virginia Cool finished sixth in the Menangle Country Series Final, but was only 1.6 metres off second after producing a good sprint from back in the field.

"She went super but just had no luck at all as the race wasn't run to suit," Painting said.

"She couldn't have went any better and you couldn't have asked much more for her. She just got beat by the barrier draw."

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