As a four-time winning trainer at the highest level, Pat Carey is no stranger to top line success but a midwinter Benchmark 84 event at Flemington has delivered a special moment for the experienced horseman and his new training partner Harris Walker.
Starlight Scope ($13), ridden by Jye McNeil, was game to hold off the challenge of Beour Bay ($6.50) to win by a short-half-head margin in the VRC Jennifer Lefebvre Trophy (1410m) to give Carey his 511th career winner and Walker his very first as a registered trainer.
"I've been in racing for a while and somehow came across Pat unintentionally," Walker said.
"We came up with this plan to go into a partnership together and ten months down the track here we are with a winner at Flemington. I can't believe it, to be honest."
After winning a midweek fillies and mares benchmark 70 event at Sandown on a month earlier, the six-year-old mare took on a harder task in the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes (1200m) finishing ninth behind Ingratiating.
