The Warwick Farm-based horseman has been a regular visitor to central west tracks in recent seasons and claimed his first feature when the four-year-old staved off a wall of challengers down the long stretches of the Mudgee home straight.

From the outside barrier in the 11-horse field, jockey Chad Lever elected to push forward on Burning Energy ($5.00 eq fav).

Despite sitting wide early, Lever eventually found the front and from that point the Bernadini (USA) x Anne Carina (NZ) gelding was able to settle into a rhythm.

Meanwhile the other major players in the market – Exemption ($5.00 eq fav, Rachael Murray), Can I Have ($6.00, Aaron Bullock) and Are You Sure ($9.00, Jay Ford) were all midfield or worse and strung up on the fence.

Rounding the turn, Burning Energy managed to burn off co-leader Any Blinkin’ Day before Can I Have emerged down the outside and Exemption found a run up the fence.

But neither runner looked likely to run down Burning Energy, which had a length to spare from Can I Have on the line, with Exemption a further length away in third.

Local hope Are You Sure ran on well from back in the field to be a close-up fourth.

The time for the race was 1:35.70.

Earlier Baker produced the well-bred Prince Of Thebes ($1.60 fav) to win the opening event, a maiden plate over the 1500m journey, by five lengths.

Prince Of Thebes was an $85,000 yearling purchase at last year’s Magic Millions Yearling Sale, and is part-owned by Dubbo’s Tim Hughes and his wife Jackie.

The gelding was having his second start after finishing runner-up to the promising Schedule at Orange on debut, and he should continue as he progresses through the grades and gets up in distance.

The double at Mudgee started a big couple of days for Baker, who also had success at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

Smart three-year-old Winning Rupert took the first step to earning a $500,000 bonus with a course record breaking return to racing.

Winning Rupert ($1.50) jumped straight to the lead and gave nothing else a chance beating Crack Me Up($11) by 5 3/4 lengths in the $100,000 QTIS Three Year old (1200m).

He clocked 1.9.42 which bettered the previous course record of 1.9.61.

Winning Rupert, who has now won all three of his starts, can earn a $500,000 bonus for any horse which could win Saturday's race and any two of the Gold Edition Plate, Vo Rogue Plate and Magic Millions Guineas.

Trainer Bjorn Baker had originally planned to run Winning Rupert in the Melbourne Spring but when the gelding got behind in his preparation he was switched to Queensland.

Baker's foreman Claire Cunningham said Winning Rupert had three trials leading into Saturday's race and was ready to dominate the summer three year old races.

"We will have a nice team here for the summer and the Magic Millions. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves but the bonus is obviously an objective."