Sutherland enjoyed her maiden success behind Jax Tellar – a horse that is trained by her father Chris with Courtney racing the gelding in partnership with her mother Donna.

“I am stoked that I have finally done it,” Sutherland said of her first winner after being in the sport for just over two years.

“I won on such a big night as well.”

Racing out in the lead was unknown territory.

“It was a bit different,” joked Sutherland.

“He has been drawing the back line which doesn’t help him at all and finally he drew the pole position and blew them away.

“There was a bit of pressure early in the race but the horse felt strong and stuck it out.”

Sutherland knew she had dangers in the race, the last race of the carnival, and had her mind set on the task at hand.

“I knew Ghost Gum was my biggest challenge and when I saw him coming I made my move” added Sutherland.

“When I went across the line I looked at Sam (Ison) and Stacey (Weidemann) and they said I did it and I started crying.”

Jax Tellar held on for a 1.7m win over Bandan (Sam Ison) and Ghost Gum (Stacey Weidemann) a half head away third with a mile-rate of 2.01.7

It may have been tears of relief, but after coming up through the mini trots and then “bitten by the harness racing bug”,  Sutherland learnt her skills from father Chris as well as making an hour long trip on occasions to Uralla to help out at the Munsie family stables.

FREELANCE reinsman Brendan Barnes drove his first winner on the Tamworth Paceway last Friday night when he piloted Better Than Max to a win in the $12,000 Garrard’s Horse & Hound Tamworth City Cup.

Two years ago, Barnes, 19, finished third in the Tamworth Cup behind Bart Cockburn’s Katesaroyal.

This time it was a much favourable result.

“He had good form going into that race,” Barnes said.

“I have seen the horse race around Menangle and I was confident before the race just on his class”

Trained at Medowie by Darren Reay, Better Than Max has had 17 wins and 32 placings from 72 career starts.

Barnes gained his novice drive behind Better Than Max thanks to a recommendation from a fellow reinsman.

“Normally Mitchell Reese drives the horse and he was unavailable so he recommended me to Darren,” he said.

“He was the best horse in the race and you can drive them a bit harder and it pays off – it was good to win a feature race at a good racing carnival like Tamworth.”

Better Than Max had a half head win over the Nathan Xuereb trained Sams Cam with John McCarthy in the spider and Culinary Delight 1.7 m away third.

With sectionals of 29.4 sec, 28.7 sec, 30.5 sec and 32.6 sec, the mile rate provided for the 2360m trip was 1.59.4.