The special occasion was enhanced by it being his first race win since becoming engaged to Lucy Goodsell - the big moment occurring when he proposed, on bended knee, on a Cairns beach on Thursday while on a short, overdue holiday.

"What a way to start our holiday," Goodsell gushed in a Facebook post announcing the engagement. "A million times yes," she added.

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Some three years after becoming an item when mutual friends introduced them, the couple have taken their relationship to the next level while also working together to grow the successful Cody Morgan Racing.

"It was nerve wracking, so I did it at the start of the holiday and not the end," the Tamworth trainer said of the proposal. "It made me nervous just thinking about it, so I got it out of the road."

Goodsell, who hails from Far North Queensland, had become an integral part of the business, Morgan said.

That occurred, he said, after he broke his leg at trackwork in April last year. The leg did not heal properly and had to be broken again, with bone grafting required.

Goodsell, he continued, was "thrown in the deep end" and was doing "an incredible job".

"It's a business that we run together ... we've built it together," the trainer said, adding: "She's the foreman, she runs all the staff ... Besides training the horses, she does absolutely everything else."

The couple picked up a share of $46,000 for Morgan's latest Highway triumph, made more special by Hugh Bowman piloting stablemate Casino Lord to a fast-finishing third.

Morgan said he and Goodsell were "cheering pretty loud" watching the race at the pub. His father, Glenn, took both horses to Sydney.

"So it was very much a family affair, but back to work tomorrow," he said as he and Goodsell prepared to board a flight at Cairns on Monday afternoon for the return trip to Tamworth.

A wedding date is yet to be set.

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