A party with friends and stable clients? Champagne, a few beers and fine food?

For Shelbourne training/driving partnership of Kate Hargreaves and Alex Ashwood it was none of the above.

The duo scored their maiden Group One win when brilliant young trotter Don't Care won the Vicbred Super Series 2YO Trotters Final at Melton on Thursday night.

After having a runner in the final race at Melton, Hargreaves and Ashwood saw in the New Year on the highway back to Shelbourne.

After arriving home at about 1am, their reward for the Group One milestone - a sleep-in until 7am Friday.

"We had a little bit of a sleep-in,'' Hargreaves said with a chuckle.

"We had to work horses this morning, so we couldn't celebrate last night.

"Hopefully, on Sunday we're going to make some time to celebrate."

No-one could begrudge Hargreaves and Ashwood celebrating such a stunning 2020.

Don't Care's Group One win capped an amazing 12 months that saw the team prepare a career-best 118 winners.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd train more than 100 winners, including a Group One winner,'' Hargreaves said.

"I thought that was out of reach for us this early on in our training career. It's a bit unbelievable, really."

Don't Care had to do plenty of work early in the race on Thursday night, but he showed a great turn of foot in the final 400m to reel in the leaders.

"I was hoping he would end up in the one-by-one, but it didn't exactly pan out as I would have liked because he had to sit in the death for the first lap of the race,'' Hargreaves said.

"I was a bit worried because of that early burn that he had to do, but he ended up in the one-by-one and everything panned out perfectly in the end."

Did the buzz of training her first Group One win live up to expectations?

"It was everything I imagined it would be,'' she said.

"I can't remember a lot about it because it was such a blur, but it was a massive, massive thrill."

Read more: Century milestone for Hargreaves/Ashwood

It won't be the last Group One winner Hargreaves trains and it might not be the only Group One win for Don't Care.

Selected by Ashwood at the yearling sales, Don't Care has always shown plenty of ability.

"We liked his manners because he's very laid back.

"He doesn't really do much wrong and he always trots well, which makes him half way there when you're working with baby trotters and they don't make mistakes.

"Once we got him to the trialing stage we knew we had something special on our hands because he was working with some of the nicer trotters in our stable.

"He's got it all. He can do a lot of work and he can outstay them, but he's also quite fast as well. He has that X-factor and he has the makings of a really nice horse."

Hargreaves said Don't Care would have a "solid break" before returning for the feature three-year-old trot events.

"I think he's going to improve. He's still quite big and gross and he has some growing to do,'' she said.

"I think he's definitely going to improve as a three-year-old, which is a bit scary."

Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.