Jumping out of barrier two, Island Press timed his run beautifully with Anna Roper in the saddle, to take the win by almost two lengths in the Dubbo City and Gilgandra Toyota Dubbo Cup Prelude (1420m).

Following the race, Mirfin admitted to Sky Thoroughbred Central the four-year-old gelding might not return to Dubbo in September to race in the Cup, with the trainer having other plans for the horse.

"I was actually looking at the Narromine Cup next week," he said.

"I think he is a much better horse on a dry track, in the back of my mind he is a Country Championships qualifier for Mudgee next February.

"I've got to keep that in the back of my mind, he is a really good prospect for a race like that."

Island Press ($3.90) got out of the gates strongly and sat second behind Hit The Target ($15) as the pack moved towards the bend.

With roughly 800m left, the gelding pushed around the outside of the leader as the rest of the field followed suit running right along the rail in front of hundreds of spectators.

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As the field pushed onto the straight, Island Press had the lead by a length and managed to find some extra speed to push away over the last part of the race to take the win.

Stephen Jones' Hit The Target ran second well ahead of Hit The Rim trained by Dubbo's Clint Lundholm.

After a strong win, Mirfin said he was impressed with how the gelding performed all day on Sunday.

"He looked spot on actually, he paraded beautifully and race pretty good too," he said.

Island Press entered the race after a tough run at Bathurst last start and Mirfin was confident the run at his home track would put him in good stead for the Dubbo meeting.

"I put the nomination in and thought if the race ended up a bit of a grind that 1800m run and the miles under his belt would stand up pretty well," he said.

Towards the end of the race, it looked like the gelding wanted to push away further, a trait Mirfin witnessed every day.

"He is a keen sort of animal, he is like that every day," he said.

"He likes his job, he is a really nice horse and is a progressive horse this fella.

"He'll go a fair way I think."

Earlier in the day, Brett Robb's Dalavin took out the Australian Turf Club Cup Sprint Prelude (1120m) by almost two lengths.

The win continued Dalavin's good form after winning his two previous starts at Dubbo and Gunnedah respectively.

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