The nine-year-old trotting mare made her debut at Echuca on Tuesday night in the Moama Bowling Club Trot, which was also trainer Maddie Ray’s first start.

A tick under 170 seconds later they also had their first win and did so in blazing style in the hands of Ray’s partner, reinsman Haydon Gray.

“It was just one of those moments, it was unbelievable,” Ray said.

“It’s a bit of a dream for Haydon and I.

Hopefully we haven’t peaked too early.”

Paul Graydon bred Miranda Kay in 2009, pairing mare On The Lips with sire Earl, and she was on-sold more than once before being snapped up by Lockwood trainer John Grose and his wife Lynette, though health challenges had put her preparation on hold.

“She’s been in the paddock doing nothing for a long time,” Ray said.

“We broke in a horse for John and he said he had another who we could race.

“We didn’t realise how old she was until we got her.”

But she would prove the perfect first horse for Ray, who’s just gained her B-grade trainer’s licence, an elevation of her trots career having driven since 2013-14.

Ray had spent about eight years with Craig Turnbull and Rebecca Cartwright – “they are practically my second family” – before moving to Bendigo to be with Haydon.

She learned to work with trotters at David Van Ryn, an education that continues as she’s now stationed with Chris Svanosio while working her own horses from Graeme Maher’s stables behind Bendigo Harness Racing Club.

“Haydon and I have been working towards (training our own) for a while,” Ray said.

“We wanted to make sure we had everything set up right and ready to go.

“When the new season came we thought we would have a crack.”

In partnership with family and friends the pair purchased two young trotters at the Australasian Premier Trotting Sale, an as yet unnamed Angus Hall colt and Aldebaran Phoebe, a Yield Boko filly by Aldebaran Peggy.

They are two of five in the stable, along with a pair of pacers and the old bay mare, trotter Miranda Kay, who on Tuesday was their first to the starter’s gate.

“We really had no expectations for her,” Ray said.

“She’s only a tiny little thing and she’s not much of a horse to look at, but once she started doing more work she just kept improving.

“She’s just got such a big heart and tries her little heart out.

“After her first trial she was a bit flat, but we worked out that we had worked her a bit much during the week.

“We trialled her again at Bendigo and then Maryborough and thought she was ready for a race.”

The $5000 TO at Echuca for trotters’ four-years-old and over appeared the perfect time to let her stretch out, with her chances of a cheque aided when scratchings reduced the field of seven to five.

“First of all we were rapt to get her to the races,” Ray said.

“Being all those years and her having never had a race start, the main goal was for her to trot and just do everything right.”

Gray eased her gently from gate five and she avoided galloping Mystic Chip on her inside to sit fourth on the pegline, where she would remain until setting off three wide with about 500m to go.

She was nose to nose with the front runners at the final turn and, within a moment, the race was hers.

“I didn’t know how well she was travelling, but as soon as Haydon pulled the plugs she was off,” Ray said.

“As soon as she went around that final bend she just went straight past them. I couldn’t believe it.

“Haydon’s family were there, all the owners were there and we just started screaming and going crazy, we were just in shock, it took a bit of time to sink in.”

The presence of owners John and Lynette Grose only made it all the more magical.

“John’s been battling health issues. They were thrilled, to be able to do that for them was really special.”