Lion Heart shows plenty of ticker in overdue maiden win | VIDEO

"He's the apple of my eye," says Morrissey, who before this week had endured 57 race starts without a victory with the gelding she and husband Paul own and bred.

The breakthrough the Morrisseys had been hoping for finally arrived at Geelong on Wednesday night when the five-year-old proved too strong for his eight rivals in a four-year-old and older maiden trot (2100m).

Lion Heart was brilliantly driven by Michael Bellman, who found the lead early and never looked like losing, going on to score by 3.1 metres ahead of the Glenn Conroy-trained and driven Winnie Cooper, with The Night King, for Mark Hayes, back in third.

The win at start number 58 brought a satisfying mix of relief, excitement and pure exhilaration for connections.

"I am known for getting pretty excited after a win," said Morrissey, who trains on a 20-acre property, 'about a five-minute' drive from Lord's Raceway.

"There's a couple of photos floating about on Facebook, which are pretty embarrassing, but it's all in good fun.

"We've had a great time in the lead-up to it - he's been an absolutely brilliant little horse and a good little money earner.

"He's certainly the apple of my eye - I'm his biggest fan.

"He's run a string of nearly 30 starts with barely missing a place when you count his fourths and his fifths as well. He's done a great job."

Having driven Lion Heart in 43 of his career starts, Bellman was not about to let the win go by without a celebration of his own, raising his whip in triumph as he crossed the line.

Morrissey was counting her blessings even further when the Geelong meeting was called off after the next race (race three) due to a power failure.

"I would have been pretty devastated if I had missed out on racing him," she said.

"I was cursing him being in an early race, it does make it difficult with work to get three for the early races, but in hindsight, it was a good thing.

"It was certainly better than driving all that way and missing out completely."

Despite the wait for the first win being much longer than anticipated, Morrissey said there was never any thought on giving up on Lion Heart.

"Every time we go around, he's earning money, so there no way I was going to give up on him," she said.

"A lot of people were saying 'when is he ever going to win a race', but not many horses go around earning money week-in, week-out.

"We were never going to give it away.

"He's got terrific form and he's not far off $30,000 in stakes, which for a horse, who had not won a race until Wednesday, is pretty exceptional."

An ultra-consistent formline for the son of Danny Bouchea and Livingonadream includes six seconds, 15 thirds and 10 fourths.

Needless to say, Morrissey is not expecting another 57 starts to go by before Lion Heart wins his next race.

"I had a race planned for him at Maryborough next week, but happily he will no longer be eligible to run in that race," she said.

"He will have a few days off now and I'll pick something out in the next few weeks for him to race in.

"I was talking about it with Mick (Bellman) last night, he's pretty consistent with the way he runs his races and the times he runs his races in, so hopefully he will still be very competitive in that next class up.

"I am pretty hopeful that even though he's moving up in class he will be reasonably competitive, so fingers crossed."

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