The tough five-year-old gelding produced a career-best effort in winning the $30,000 Aldebaran Park Vicbred Platinum Metropolitan Trot Final (2240m) at harness racing headquarters.

Nephew Of Sonoko ($4.80), driven by young gun James Herbertson, was made to earn it, after settling towards the rear of the field, before coming three-wide in the middle stages to sit in the death seat behind the pacemaker Anywhere Hugo ($3.30 favourite) with a lap to go.

The pair were able to steal a six-metre break on their rivals on entering the straight before battling out the finish, with Nephew Of Sonoko eventually getting the better of the Chris Svanosio-trained and Tayla French-driven six-year-old to win by 3.5-metres.

The win came off the back of a string of consistent and competitive performances in free-for-all grade in recent months and a second in his heat behind Anywhere Hugo the previous week at Melton.

It was a proud moment for Graham and his brother Ross, who own the dependable son of Danny Bouchea and Sister Of Sonoko, and were both trackside on Saturday night.

"He's a lovely horse - he's raced at the top level all the way through. He probably wasn't a very good two-year-old, but probably from a late two-year-old to early three-year-old he hit his straps and he's been above average for sure," Graham said.

"He's a high-90s rater, which makes it very difficult to find easy races for him, so he's got to race against the best.

"There's free-for-alls for him most Saturday nights down at Melton, where he'll be taking on the real good ones, which is hard work.

"He is probably just a little bit short of the really good ones, but he's only young, we're hoping he gets a little stronger and he can match up to the free-for-all class in the coming months.

"It's hard to know whether he'll be able to do it. Right now, Tornado Valley and Sparkling Success are probably the benchmark and they are near the end of their careers I guess.

"My feeling is he's just a bit short of being an absolute topliner, but he's still a very good horse and we know he'll always try his best no matter what."

Graham said while Nephew Of Sonoko would return to Melton this Saturday night, he had no 'grand plan' in mind with newly-crowned Group 2 winner.

"We will just take it as it comes - he's fit and healthy and will go around in whatever race he can," he said.

"Every now and then there will be opportunities to put a claim driver on him again in races like that.

"He's competed in a lot of the big races, the Group 1s, for his age group. He made the three-year-old and four-year-old Vicbred finals. He ran fourth in the three-year-old and fifth in the four-year-old, so they are really nice efforts.

"The race (on Saturday), being restricted to a certain rating, was more-or-less perfect at the time. I was able to put James Herbertson on and he was able to drop back that little grade and it made all the difference."

Prior to Saturday night's win and the heat the week before, Nephew Of Sonoko had been driven in 20 of his previous 21 starts by legendary reinsman Brian Gath, who first took the reins behind the gelding during last year's regional racing period.

Nephew Of Sonoko was one of the stars of region-only racing at Lord's Raceway, with three wins and two seconds from six starts.

He has since boosted his career record to 11 wins and 18 minor placings from 70 starts with the handy addition of a Group 2 success and earnings of nearly $120,000.

A good season for the Graham stable continued with a maiden win to Roxy Royale at Shepparton on Sunday on Pacing for Pink day.

The four-year-old mare broke through at start number 16 for the same ownership group, headed by breeder Ron Laird, which has enjoyed plenty of success, including multiple-metropolitan wins, with their pacer Animated.

"That was a big thrill for myself and our long-time clients; she's actually a half-sister to Animated," said Graham, who boosted his 2021 season win tally to 15.

"She's obviously a little bit limited and nowhere near the horse Animated is, but she's honest and a trier.

"It was a great day up there in support of the McGrath Foundation and a great day to get a winner."

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