Ridden by Brock Ryan, the mare ran over the top of stablemate Budderoo Knight and favourite Tenorino, before holding off a fast-finishing Gitan to claim a tight victory in the 1400 metre open handicap.

With the Bega Cup to be run over 1600m on Sunday February 2, trainer Luke Price said Cuban Belle will likely head south for the race.

"Cuban Belle was really good," Price said. "We might send her to the Bega Cup. A couple of the horses in that race are looking to go that way and looking at the calendar, it might be the right thing to go to the Bega Cup.

"I think if she draws the right barrier and has a nice run, she'll be hard to beat."

Cuban Belle's win was the Prices' sole victory on a challenging day at Nowra Racecourse, the weather conditions polar opposite to previous weeks.

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While multiple racedays at Nowra were cancelled this summer due to extreme heat and smoke, Friday's meeting was run in the rain on a heavy nine.

With so many horses missing races due to the cancellations in Nowra and elsewhere on the south coast, Price conceded the meeting was simply a case of sending some of his horses for a run.

"It would have been nice to have a couple more winners, but on a heavy track it's tough. It's been such a frustrating run, with the weather, some of those horses just had to go around.

"It was good to get one winner and a couple of horses still ran well, so we'll take it as a positive day."

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