FIFTEEN years after he won the Soldier’s Saddle as a jockey, Bathurst product Justin Stanley has again laid his hands on the coveted trophy – this time as the victorious trainer at Tyers Park on Saturday.

In a tight finish which the judges took a number of minutes to review, it was Stanley’s Prattler who was declared the winner of the $25,000, Class 4 Handicap.

His Dubbo trained gelding beat out a member of his father Peter’s team – Hollywood Nell – by a nose.

“It’s the biggest race that I have won, I have been training for less than 12 months, I have been doing this for about eight months,” Stanley said.

“I won this as a jockey before – it is a good feeling to get a winner anywhere, riding or training. But training probably gives you a bigger buzz because you put a lot more work into the training than you do the riding, it is a lot harder.”

It was back in 2002 that Stanley won the Soldier’s Saddle as a jockey, getting the job done on a five-year-old gelding trained at Narromine by Janelle Galea called Elbow.

A $13 chance, Elbow emerged from the pack down the home straight and flew home to win by one and a half lengths over Billy Bass. He had been sitting in last at one stage before Stanley got him wound up.

“I didn’t want to be that far back, but he found the line nicely and got the money,” Stanley said at the time.

Elbow had never before saluted over 1,400m and had only won three races prior to his Soldier’s Saddle victory.

It was a similar story on Saturday as Prattler took out Bathurst Thoroughbred Racing’s annual ANZAC Day feature.

The four-year-old gelding by Golden Snake out of Jessica Said went into the race with a record of four wins from 26 starts, the most recent of which came on June 20 last year.

From three previous attempts at the distance, Prattler had failed to finish amongst the placings, so started the saddle as a $17 chance. It was Hollywood Nell, a noted performer in the wet, who was backed into $3.40 favouritism on a heavy 10 track.

That pair fought it out for a bulk of the journey, Hollywood Nell making the better start from barrier eight before jockey Greg Ryan worked Prattler into the lead along the rails.

Having won three of the previous four editions of the Soldier’s Saddle, Ryan again produced a smart ride.

Prattler initially led by one and a half lengths before backing things off a little to sit three-quarters of a length ahead of Hollywood Nell with 800m to travel.

Into the home straight as the field spread out, it was Prattler and Hollywood Nell, the closest runners to the rail, who pulled clear.

The pair battled hard all the way to the post with Prattler eventually declared the winner by a nose over Hollywood Nell, ridden by Michael Travers. The 2014 runner-up, Paul Theobald’s All Sixes ($5, Ken Dunbar), flew home to finish a length behind that pair in third.

Stanley admitted he initially thought his father had trumped him.

“It was good to see, I would have been happy if either me or dad had of won. I actually thought his horse had won it,” he said.

“I am just very thrilled to win this.

“Today is the day I was looking forward to with him, so I will just pick up the book during the week and see where I take him from here."