After falling behind the pack at the start, the winner of the Western District qualifier was always going to struggle to make an impact in Saturday's $500,000 event.

"It just never panned out for us that but that's racing unfortunately," Nestor said of Activation.

"It was good that we got the opportunity to go around in it but unfortunately we never performed at our best and it was good to bounce back yesterday."

In Sunday's sixth race, the Nestor trained duo of Vital Verse ($1.40) and Forseti ($18) finished first and second respectively and the trainer feels that the winner is one to watch.

"Both of them went good. Vital Verse is a horse we purchased a couple of weeks ago, syndicated among a few people from everywhere and really good bunch of people." he said of the three-year-old gelding.

"He will go to the paddock now for about six weeks, he will make a nice horse in the spring."

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Looking ahead, Nestor admitted Vital Verse could be poised for a run at next year's Country Championship qualifiers after an impressive first run.

"That's sort of the target we bought him for the highways and the Country Championships, I think he a nice horse for the future," he said.

Boom Boom Basil ($4) took out race seven again for Nestor who was pleased with the performance the three-year-old gelding turned out.

"He ran really well, I've always had a nice opinion of the horse he's just been a little bit late in maturing. He looked like he put it all together yesterday they ran a terrific time in a pretty strong class 1," he said.

"He's a horse that will shape up to a highway in his next start or two."

Splasher ($4.80) and Disobedient ($10) finished second and third respectively in race seven.

Jockey Anthony Cavallo had a day out riding both Nestor's winners.

Patrick May trained by Dubbo's Leo Harland was too good, winning race eight ahead of Poor Sam ($19).

The local horse ridden by Dylan Stanley led the race from start to finish and looked to have run of out steam with 400m to go but held on for a length and a half win over a fast finishing Poor Sam.

French Marine ($4.40) finished a close third ahead of Nowyunomi ($91).

Gulgong trainer Brett Thompson continued his good form of late with Blow Dart ($4) winning race five in a photo finish ahead of Differing ($7).

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