In his pre-race interview at the track, Nestor stated his lightly-raced three-year-old needed to live up to his name and produce a harder and faster run.

And that’s exactly what happened as jockey Rachael Murray got Harder Faster to fly home in the Maiden Plate (1300m) and steal the win from Attalea in a photo finish.

It had been a frustrating start to Harder Faster’s career and Tuesday’s win was his first in eight attempts.

The gelding best’s finish was a second-place run at Parkes in January of this year and Tuesday was proof a recent month-long freshen up worked wonders.

“He’s just a one-paced bugger who’ll sit in there and that’s what I said to Rach, put him in the race around this track and if he’s fit enough he’ll be good enough,” Nestor said in his post-race interview, while also taking time to praise the connections.

“It’s great for the owners, they’re two top blokes Kev Keady and Tommy Lyons and they’re away at the moment but no doubt they would have been watching and doing a fair bit of cheering.”

Harder Faster ($6) was in with a chance right from the start at Gilgandra, as King got out well from barrier six and settled in behind early leader Attalea ($6), ridden by Mikayla Weir for Gulgong’s Brett Thompson.

Destiny Is Written began a warm $3.50 favourite having missed out in his 13 previous starts and Ken Dunbar sat midfield on the gelding for much of the journey.

By the time the race entered the bend it was clear the winner was going to be one of the leading duo and even once they had passed the post there was no one in attendance who was positive what the result was.

It took a photo to separate them but it was clear to see Harder Faster had got the win by a nose after showing some real strength over the final strides.

Double You Owe Bee ($8) ran home third for Nyngan trainer Rodney Robb, who finished the day with a winning treble.

Robb combined with his apprentice jockey Clayton Gallagher all three times, scoring back-to-back wins in the second and third events with Bentley Gold and Ace Lightning respectively before winning the day’s last race with Miss Mellencamp.

Bentley Gold’s win in the $20,000 Maiden Handicap (1000m) was particularly pleasing as it was the gelding’s debut win after being bought for just $500.

Gallagher and Bentley Gold ($6.50) sat towards the back of the field for much of the journey but the hoop worked himself into contention as the race approached the 200m mark and proved too good, going on to win by three-quarters-of-a-length from Girl Most Likely ($6) and Luciana Girl ($3.60).