The six-year-old gelding notched his first country cup success with a courageous feature race performance last Friday night.

Driven superbly by the in-form Ellen Tormey, Well Defined ($8.30) showed plenty of pluck to recover after galloping at the start and run down the well-backed favourite Havehorsewilltravel ($1.10) to win by half a neck in a new track record of 2:03.3.

Hargreaves was always confident the gelding could rebound from his eighth in the first elimination heat of the Great Southern Star behind Tough Monarch, who backed up to win last Saturday night's Group 1 The Knight Pistol.

"I was a little bit disappointed with his Great Southern Star (heat) run, but he really picked up during the week and he was looking terrific," she said.

"I actually said to Ellen before the race, 'I have a really good feeling, I think he's going to run a really good race tonight'.

"I knew if he was at his best he could beat Andy Gath's horse (Havehorsewilltravel), but he had to be 100 per cent.

"Havehorsewilltravel is an emerging star, so it's a feather in Well Defined's cap beating him.

"I thought the whole way up the straight he would get past Havehorsewilltravel, but he took his time.

"He's that sort of horse, he's not arrogant, and he's not going to win by half the straight, he does what he has to do.

"He's my favourite horse, I've always loved him, so this win was pretty exciting for me.

"He's just been so consistent and so honest the whole time we've had him."

Well Defined, a winner of 12 of 59 starts since joining the Hargreaves stable in mid-2018 and placed on a further 14 occasions, is owned by Hargreaves' brother Brett and his partner Brooke Palfreyman, who, according to the trainer, were rapt with what was a local cup win of sorts.

"They live in Stawell, which is not far away from Ararat, where Brett and I went to school, so it gave us that connection," she said.

"There were lots of familiar faces in the crowd, people I went to school with, so it was pretty cool.

"Brett and all his mate had a great night at the cup."

His Ararat Cup took the son of Majestic Son's earnings over the $100,000 mark to $106,786.

With the first country cup win under his belt, Well Defined will be set for a tilt at this Saturday night's Group 3 Terang Trotters Cup (2680m).

"I definitely think there's more (cup wins) in him, especially if things suit him," Hargreaves said.

"I know he galloped on Friday but normally he's away pretty fast - he's definitely much better suited to the standing start.

"I think he can be competitive the whole way through the country cups.

"Terang will be a lot tougher because there's no feature racing at Melton the night before, but he'll head there and be competitive again."

Hargreaves praised another top drive by Tormey, who had driven Well Defined at his past five starts and 16 times overall, for two wins, six seconds and a third.

"We were happy to get that win for Team Teal, we were the only female training-driver combo in the race, so that was good too," she said.

"Ellen had been driving him a bit during the regional racing and they just sort of clicked.

"He's a funny little horse at times and he is actually very hard to drive, very painful.

"They seem to get along really well and she seems to get the best out of him. No disrespect to anyone who has driven him before, but he seems to have gone to that next level since she's been on him, so we've stuck to that winning formula.

"Albie (Alex Ashwood) has gladly stepped aside to let her drive her."

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.