Colville House won for Mick Mulholland at Gilgandra on Saturday

The Mulholland-trained gelding claimed his second career win at Gilgandra in the Collie Hotel and Happy 60th Birthday John! Class 1 and Maiden Plate (1800m) on a track which was rated a Good 3 in pleasant conditions.

The trainer had other matters to attend to but his wife and co-owner Mel was pretty impressed with how things went during the run.

"We told Serg (Lisnyy) 'you can't ride this fella pretty, you've got start taking off around the 1000m mark'," she said.

"From there you play catch me if you can, especially coming back from 2200m last start, 1800m was going to be a big ask because Mick thinks he could run 3000m.

"He just battles, he got beaten by our other good horse at Dubbo but we thought the track might have brought him undone."

Jumping out of barrier six, the six-year-old gelding took his time to get into the race as Dream Lad ($3.50) raced out to an early lead by several lengths.

READ ALSO:

Colville House ($2.05) sat six places back from the lead before starting to push on the back straight but Dream Lad continued on its way leading the field.

As they neared the finish and a rowdy crowd, Colville House kicked four-wide around the outside before taking the lead late to hit the line well.

In his 19th start, the gelding was impressive and Mulholland confessed he had to go through a fair bit just to return to the track after picking up an illness previously.

"In his first prep we had him he got crook, we just turfed him in the paddock for 12 months and let him get over it," she said.

"He's come back pretty good this prep, he's fat which is good."

The track looked in great condition after the opening races ahead of Gilgandra Cup Day on Monday and Mulholland commended the club for the effort in preparing the track.

"The track is looking beautiful, especially for this time of year," she said.

"A lot of the tracks have been hard but this one has a lot of cushioning, the horses aren't even pounding it."

Elsewhere, Kieren Hazelton picked up two race wins at his home track in front of a strong and loud crowd who showed their appreciation.

Melissa Dennett also picked up a winner with Speed Match earlier in the day.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: