The gelding took the lead at the 100-metre mark to just scrape in over the line.

Hipparchus led for most of the race before jockey John Allen made his move at the turn. Allen said he had to give the $3.70 favourite a little squeeze early to hold their spot.

“We had a nice run. He needed a bit of luck on the turn and from there he travelled up nicely,” he said.

“He had a little think when he got there, but we were always going to win I think.”

The horse looked to back off slightly on the approach to the line.

“He travelled a little bit keen to run. He got his head in front at the line which was the main thing,” Allen said.

Almost two and a half lengths behind was Master Zephyr, another Darren Weir-trained horse.

It marks another Wimmera cup win for Darren Weir who has enjoyed another successful spring season. 

Weir claimed the Horsham Cup with Another Coldie, ridden by Horsham’s Dean Yendall, at the start of October.

The other major race was the richest race of the day, the $82,000 China Bowl.

Harry Coffey rode Choisborder across the line as Weir collected another winner for the day.

The race was a very close finish with Chippenham 0.2 of a length behind in second and King Kohei half a length.

Choisborder wore blinkers for the first time, something Coffey said he knew he would respond really well too.

“I got a really good run. I just joined in well,” he said.

“We hit the front and he had a little bit of a think about it. I put a couple of hits behind his tail and he really stretched out nicely.”

Weir notched three wins for the entire day after winning race two along with the Cup and China Bowl.

It was a good day for Stawell-based jockey Linda Meech. Meech rode Stawell trainers Terry and Karina O’Sullivan’s horse Du to Pass to a win in race three.

She made it back-to-back wins in race four on Lecture, while she also had two seconds in races five and seven, and third in race eight.

Horsham trainer Paul Preusker had one winner on the day with The Great Artiste in race eight.

Club manager Penny Penfold said went well with the sun out for the the Ararat Turf Club’s first meeting of the season and crowd numbers up on last year.

“We had a big and well behaved crowd that enjoyed the racing and everything the day had to offer,” she said.

“The track raced very well, especially given it was out first meeting of the season.”

Ballarat’s Tatiana Collier took out the Fashions on the Field award from Horsham’s Belinda Nurse.

“It was tough for the judges to pick a winner. It was very well contested with a lot of interest from across the state which was really positive,” Ms Penfold said.