Racing: Comeback jockey savours group one win on 120-1 shot

Mark Hills has no idea what he would be doing if he hadn't returned to race riding.

What he does know is that there is nothing he would have preferred to be doing than flashing over the line to win the group one Thorndon Mile aboard Macavelli Miss on Saturday.

Jockeys don't forget their first group one victory.

Trainer Roger James cannot believe Macavelli Miss paid $121.

"She's had 16 starts and has been first or second in 10 of them.

"She put in a couple of ordinary runs in the sprint so I eased her, but since she's been back she has been back to her best.

"I did something I've never done earlier in the week - I called Bruce Herd and said his mount [Macavelli Miss] was the absolute star worker.

"In 12 months I haven't had a horse gallop better."

James' confidence in a massive performance wilted when Macavelli Miss drew barrier No 20 and disappeared when Herd broke his wrist in a race fall on Thursday.

Stable trackwork rider Mark Hills, who was not heading to Trentham, suddenly had a group one ride.

"I told Mark it was a no-panic ride. I said to sit back and when the field fanned on the home bend he would go from 15 lengths off them to four length away."

The only forceful instruction was to find a late gap in the home straight.

Hills managed that, but had to force the gap. He shaved Sapphire Belle and Atapi as he angled towards the inside - for which he copped a three-week suspension - but it was the winning of the race.

"You feel bad when you do things like that, but I felt neither horse was going forward and I also thought there was movement by Sapphire Bell onto Atapi before I got there.

"You can't be unlucky in a group one race."

The previous best win Hills had achieved was on Hero in the group two Mudgway Stakes.

"That's a group one race now."

James is unsure what to do with Macavelli Miss.

"You can only race her twice or three times in a preparation. Any more and you are wasting your time."

Macavelli Miss is owned in the Bay of Plenty by Gareth Downey and his parents, Keith and Margaret.

Gareth Downey was the only one at Trentham and said he had never backed the horse because of superstition and did not want to jinx her by changing the practice. But nothing could beat the feeling of winning.