KEY POINTS:
There were great family celebrations in the Te Rapa birdcage after Our Mavourneen won for the Sanders family on Saturday.
The gutsy mare was the first horse taken to the races by Mark Sanders, who has just gone into a training partnership with his father Graeme.
Mark replaces his sister Debbie Sweeney, who stepped aside to raise a family.
But her husband Mark Sweeney was centre stage as the part owner and rider of Our Mavourneen.
The mare must have known it was a special occasion because she put in a performance as if her life depended on it, grabbing the pacemaker The Cosmob in the last stride.
The 58kg she had to lump is a huge impost for a mare in the wet, but she didn't flinch from the moment Mark Sweeney pressed the button at the 500m.
Graeme Sanders couldn't get over how relevant the win was.
"The same thing happened to me. The first horse I saddled up when I got my license and went into partnership with dad was Spray Doone the day he won the Grand National."
Similar family feelings flowed when young James McDonald scored his first win as an apprentice, landing his father's horse Johnnie The Sand home in the first race.
The son of former high class jumps jockey Brett McDonald has looked the goods from the first day he rode at the trials.
On what ranks as one of the bleakest days weather-wise for months, Raised On Rock added some spice by running away with the 1400m maiden.
He looks the real deal and although he pulled quite hard in the trail on Saturday, he looked more like a stayer when coming home strongly from the back to be just beaten at Otaki at his previous start. There will be more in store for him if he's not sold overseas.
