This time instead of it being a horse that had relocated to Australia, it was a driver.

Auckland native Steph Burley notched up the first win of her young career, driving the Steve Turnbull trained Our Emancipation to victory in the Memberships Are Now Due Pace (2,260 metres).

Then, to make the evening extra special, Burley made it a race-to-race double when she saluted again just over 30 minutes later with another of Turnbull’s runners Oh I Am The One.

Both wins had her smiling, but it was the first she will remember best.

“Pretty good,” Burley replied when asked how she felt after notching up her maiden win.

“She [Our Emancipation] pretty well co-operated, so I thought she’d get it.”

Burley first came to Australian in 2014 with her father Mark to campaign their pacer Major Command. They based themselves at the home of Pheasants Nest trainer Darren Hancock.

Burley enjoyed her time so much she decide to remain at Hancock’s and work on advancing her career.

As her experience grew she met The Lagoon’s Mitch Turnbull, who became her boyfriend. It was that connection which led her to Bathurst.

Our Emancipation, a three-year-old Real Desire x Miss Carlyle filly bred and owned by the Burley family, started as the $2.60 favourite.

However, she was the youngest runner in a field dominated by geldings. It left the New Zealand driver with some work to do.

Going from barrier seven, Burley was involved in an early three-way battle for the lead with Mister Bigshot and Puffnstuff.

As they exited the first bend, it was clear Our Emancipation had won.

Once in the lead, Burley smartly eased the tempo and was able to pinch comfortable sectionals of 32.1 and 30.3 seconds to set up Our Emancipation for a sprint finish.

Jim Douglass got moving with The Maldives as the 600m mark loomed, but up front Burley had urged her chance to increase the speed. A 28.6 third sectional saw her 1½ lengths clear with 300m to go.

From there Our Emancipation went on with the job to win by 5.9m over The Maldives in a 2:00.2 mile rate.