OUR Doreen Days' win at Lord's Raceway on Tuesday night came as a mild surprise to his trainer Nigel Milne.
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But what came next came as a total surprise.
Just moments after Milne had crossed the finish line aboard the six-year-old son of Shadow Play, back at the family home at Goornong, he and wife Danielle's four-year-old daughter Ngaire had an idea.
Without so much of a word to her grandparents Jim and Diane, who were babysitting, Ngaire exited the living room where she had been watching the race and headed to the fridge in the garage.
For dad, she grabbed two beers, while on the way back inside the house she gathered a bottle of wine and a glass with ice cubes for mum.
She set them up on a picnic blanket in the living room with an iPad, allowing the Milnes to watch the replay and celebrate when they returned home from the track.
Milne said the only small gloss off an exciting win was that Ngaire, who will turn five next week and is a part-owner of the horse alongside mum and dad, was unable to see her parents' reaction.
"She couldn't stay up, she was that tired that she fell asleep and missed it," he said.
"It was fantastic, we enjoyed it a lot.
"He's been a great horse for us. We've gone through a lot since we first got him, with all the problems and all the ups and downs, to see him come out and win again was terrific.
"That's why you do it I guess, for moments like last night."
The Milnes have ridden the highs and lows with Our Doreen Days, who missed 18 months of racing due to a near-fatal tendon injury.
His return to racing last July was capped by a win four starts later in August, but 15 subsequent starts had failed to produce a single victory.
Milne said the move to regional-based racing early last month had been 'a godsend' for smaller trainers and horses like Our Doreen Days.
"I guess the writing was on the wall, he had performed pretty well the previous two starts," he said.
"Two starts prior (to the win) he was technically out of his grade, but we had to nominate somewhere to get a race.
"He managed to fare well against those better grade horses.
"Up until then, I thought he had somewhat lost a little bit of interest. He was working well at home, but when I took him to the races, prior to the coronavirus and the regional racing coming in, he just wasn't performing.
"He seemed to have lost his zip and was just going through the motions.
"As it worked out, regional racing came in and I took all the gear off him to streamline things and started driving him myself, and things have certainly improved."
Our Doreen Days' win came in a personal best mile rate of 1:55:4.
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