Great Whanganui mates Fraser Auret and Johnathan Parkes finally cracked the century when first starter Massiff Princess won on debut at New Plymouth on Friday.
Amazingly, Auret has now trained 251 winners in his relatively short career and Parkes has now been on 100 of them. Many of those wins have also been for arguably Auret's No 1 owner John Bromley who bred and races Massiff Princess.
Immediately after the race Auret praised Parkes' work ethic and undoubted ability in the saddle, but also cited their friendship as a major factor in achieving the milestone.
An impressive front-running performance to win by the well-related Massiff Princess brought up a significant milestone Auret and Parkes had been hunting for the last few months.
Sent forward to dispute the pace by Parkes, Massiff Princess was keen in her work and soon had the field well spread out in her wake. Given a breather approaching the home bend the 4-year-old Iffraaj mare maintained a bold gallop to fend off the challenge of runner-up Zealand by a neat length at the line.