BY TOM BARBER (Daily Liberal - 30 January 2023)

‍

He may not have raced in more than a year but Mountain Brook showed no signs of rust as he took out his maiden race win on Monday at Dubbo Turf Club.

The gelding hit the line strongly to snatch victory in the Ray White Rural Dubbo Maiden Plate (1400m) narrowly ahead of Heavenly Spirit.

Following the race, trainer Michael Mulholland was elated with how his runner had fared, especially in his first run with the table.

"I think he was off for about 500 days or something stupid," he said.

"The way we ride him, his best two runs were his last two over 1400 and 1600m.

"He trialled really well, he has a lot more in his tank. It was one of those trials, there is only a handful in the field so you can't take much out of it.

"He hit the line really well, he'll probably go around in a 1600m next start."

Showers on Monday eased just in time for the second race of the Turf Club's meeting with the Soft 7-rated track holding up well.

As the field jumped Clint Lundholm's Heavenly Spirit ($21) led the pack through the opening stages of the race with Champ Profound ($2.20) sitting in second.

Mountain Brook ($26) sat and waited for his chance to strike with jockey Angela Cooper opting to sit back until the field rounded onto the straight.

The rain began to fall a bit harder as the pack headed for the line with Heavenly Spirit still well ahead but Mountain Brook wasn't done yet.

The gelding kicked away late, leaving his push right until the last minute to sneak ahead at the line to take his first career win.

Formerly trained by Lauri Parker, Mountain Brook had only run the one trial start at Orange for Mulholland prior to Monday's race.

With the rain still lightly falling, there had been some concern from jockeys about track visibility and Mulholland shared his thoughts on the conditions.

"If you are like the wet going then you are in for a show," he said.

To make the trainer's day even better, Colville House ($2.25) won in the very next race, taking out the Chill-Rite Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Benchmark 58 Handicap (2200m).

Ridden by Serg Lisnyy, Coville House's win was his second from his last three starts.

Earlier in the day, Rodney Robb's Speudosa ($9.50) won the Precision Health Care Country Boosted Maiden Plate (1000m).

Robb's runner narrowly edged out Little Ditty, which is trained by his son, Brett.