It wasn't Flemington, but victories on Melbourne Cup day are always one to savour for Paul Murray.
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On Tuesday it was River Mac, the gelding finally breaking through at Kembla Grange after a challenging few months.
The five-year-old arrived in Murray's stable from Aaron Clarke during the winter and it took time to adapt to the new conditions.
With each race, however, Murray gained more confidence and he was thrilled to see River Mac break through in a 1200 metres BenchMark 64 contest.
"It's really good to have a win today," Murray said. "He's been knocking on the door. He's been a little bit of a handful to train, but I'm slowly working him out.
"When I first got him, I thought he'd be a 1400m horse, but it's just taken him so long to relax. The penny's just starting to drop now."
While it took a little while for Murray to crack the River Mac code, John O'Shea knows exactly what he has with Comrade Rosa.
A promising filly with plenty of upside.
The three-year-old secured a dominant victory in the first start of her career on Tuesday, a 1200m maiden at Kembla Grange.
After peeling to the outside at the top of the straight, Comrade Rosa surged past Gwenda Markwell's Unyielding Spirit to prevail by nearly three lengths.
The victory marked apprentice jockey Laura Lafferty's first winner since moving to NSW from Victoria and joining O'Shea in early October and the stable is predicting a bright future for both rider and horse.
"It's nice to get the first one under my belt," Lafferty said. "It's been a long time coming, so good to get away.
"We've been really impressed with [Comrade Rosa], she's showed so much promise at trackwork and even today, she still has a lot to learn but she will get even better.
"Once I got off the back of the second favourite, she was able to let down and it was really impressive.
"She was star-gazing a bit while out in front, but she was probably entitled to with that lead."
Overall, Kembla Grange trainers enjoyed a successful day on their home track, Anthony Mountney's Chiranjeev taking out a 1000m maiden plate.
Markwell, the region's leading trainer, then closed out the day with victories in the final two races.
First it was Papadum edging Melissa Harrison's Pelennium in a 1600m maiden before Christian Reith guided Stolen Glance to victory in a 1600m BenchMark 64.
Markwell claimed the trifecta in the race, the mare finishing ahead of stablemates Tic Tock Man and C'Mon Reg.
Also on Tuesday, Matthew Dunn's promising filly Sachello claimed her second win from three starts.
Stable representative Keira Dunn said the three-year-old will continue to get better with each start.
"She's a right little professional and if she can keep progressing and keep stepping up and doing things right, there's no reason why she can't go on to bigger and better things," Dunn said.