Persistence pays off as Reid notches up first city win

It was a fork in the road moment for trainer Dwayne Reid last Friday night at The Valley, saddling up his first ever metropolitan winner with the extreme outsider of the field Alluvial in the Rethink Reuse Rhima Handicap. Sent around at cricket score odds of $31 in the small field of 7, Alluvial was able to use barrier 1 to his advantage, and was never headed under a proactive Neil Farley ride. Given his long starting price, opposition jockeys paid little respect to the easy time Farley was getting out in front, and the pair were able to carve out modest mid-race sectionals of 12.90, 13.33 and 12.81 before increasing the tempo close to home to take out the 1600-metre contest. The milestone victory for Reid comes just one week after he had Miracle Mel run last beaten 40 lengths at Hanging Rock, a performance that he said post-race made him contemplate giving up on the game for good. “My last runner ran 40 lengths last at Hanging Rock last weekend, so I was pretty much ready to retire, so it’s a nice bounce back”, Reid said on Racing.com. Now 35 years old, Reid has worked in racing since an adolescent and has worked under legendary trainer Bart Cummings, along with another Cox Plate winner Patrick Payne. He was awarded the inaugural winner of the Thoroughbred Employee of the Year Award way back in 2006, which coincidentally also took place at Moonee Valley. As well as looking after his own horses though, the Seymour-based trainer also works a day job at powerhouse stud Yulong, but after Friday night at The Valley Reid says the victory has certainly helped his motivation to want to find more city class horses in the immediate future. “Absolutely. Obviously, as most trainers know, when your horse runs poorly, it's sort of kick yourself wondering what you could do differently and hoping that the next time the other come goes around that it'll be a better result.&nbsp; “So, yeah, I was feeling the pinch the weekend before and, you know, we work hard for minimal results really, but we're sort of doing the best we have with the quality of horses we have.” Alluvial only broke his maiden in December of 2023, and Friday night’s victory was also a first metro win for his owners, passionate racing couple Peter and Pam Wallace who own the horse in full. The pair were pictured in high spirits celebrating with Reid after the surprise win on Friday night and cherished their evening in the Swettenham Stud Owners’ Room and Winning Owners’ Bar.&nbsp; “It’s hard for individual owners to win one race anywhere but to win in town was what you dream about. Your Club did an outstanding job,” Peter Wallace said.