Tuesday, 27 August 2019: Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup rekindled an old Brisbane connection when Nevada Sunrise recorded his maiden win at Bathurst on Monday.

PETER MOODY

The lightly-raced three-year-old is raced by a syndicate headed by Black Caviar's trainer Peter Moody and put together by John Fleming.

"I moved to Brisbane in 1999 to help Liam Birchley run Sydney trainer Bill Mitchell's satellite stable," Widdup recalled.

"Peter Moody had just left Bill's stable to start training in his own right and I saw a lot of him.

"John Fleming was Tony Gollan's foreman and we became good mates.

"It was great to get a result for them along and the syndicate that races Nevada Sunrise."

Moody, now retired from training, purchased Nevada Sunrise, by Fighting Sun, for only $35,000 at last year's Melbourne Premier yearling sale.

Expatriate South African Keagan Latham rode Nevada Sunrise, who broke through at only his third career start.

Nevada Sunrise is only the second horse Widdup has prepared by Fighting Sun. He won with Sunfighter on debut at Wyong in January of 2018 before the gelding was badly injured in the Inglis Classic at Warwick Farm and was retired.

Nevada Sunrise continued Widdup's winning momentum, being his third win in five days, all by three-year-olds who shed their maiden status.

He scored with talented Lonhro filly Darling Point at Hawkesbury last Thursday and Sizzling colt Bullet Storm won at Nowra on Sunday.

Hawkesbury trainers won three races at Bathurst but had to share one of them.

Widdup and Karen Outtrim won races outright and Wade Slinkard had to settle for a dead-heat when his four-year-old Banjo's Voice hit the line with Ben Shoof with the judge unable to separate them.

Outtrim has credited a change of stables and training routine for the winning form of her Bathurst winner Dragon's Shadow.

The Pendragon five-year-old made it two wins on the bounce for the Hawkesbury trainer after a runaway victory on Canberra's ACTON track on August 9.

Outtrim purchased Dragon's Shadow for $5000 at a Ready 2 Race sale in Sydney in 2016 with the gelding scoring a shock $201 win at only his second start as an early three-year-old in a Hawkesbury maiden in 2017.

Dragon's Shadow failed to win in 25 subsequent starts until returning to the winning list at Canberra.

Outtrim has only three horses and trains from Lyn Ingham's stables at Hawkesbury.

"It is a very peaceful setting, and the horses appreciate it," Outtrim said.

"Dragon's Shadow was quite highly strung early on, and has taken a long time to mature in the head.

"But he has settled in really well to his new surroundings and my trackwork rider Paul Prentice does some dressage with him and that has undoubtedly helped a lot."