SHE'S only a new arrival at Keith Cotchin's Elmore stable, but Juniper has made quite the first impression.
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The former Tasmanian showed more than just a glimpse of her considerable ability with a convincing win in her first start on Victorian soil on Elmore Cup day.
Cotchin hopes the four-year-old mares's third career win - from 19 starts - is only a sign of better things to come.
"I have only had her about 12 days, she came over from Tassie with the aim of getting her Vicbred bonus," he said.
"She would have got half of it today, hopefully she gets the other half in the final on New Year's day at Echuca.
"I've been friends with Barry Rattray for years and he sent it over to me, We've swapped horses around a little bit over the years, so this has worked well."
Cotchin added that getting a win at his hometown cup day was always a bonus.
"It's hard to do, I thought I might get a cup win last year (with Gone Too Far), but I couldn't get warm ... we got knocked over at the start," he said.
"This year we got warm. Everything panned out for us, which I didn't think would necessarily be the case.
"There was a lot more pace in the race than I expected, it was a bit of a surprise.
"The driver (Ryan Duffy) drove to instructions and drove very well."
Cotchin described his cup day win as the icing on the cake of a good year.
"I got a grandson (Jack), so that made it a real good year," he said.
"Racing-wise it's been a pretty good year too, I haven't got the top quality (horses), but for the ones we have got we have gone quite well.
"It's a bit of a shame Betternbetter didn't go as well as we would have thought, but overall the year has panned out okay.
"We have a couple of young ones, so hopefully we can pluck a good one out of that."
Juniper provided Cotchin with his fourth win of the season from 30 starts.
His other cup day runner Rocknroll Noah finished fourth behind the Ross Graham-Sutton Grange-trained gelding Animated in a keenly contested NR 72 to 89 pace.
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