Though the Georges Plains reinsman is no stranger to contesting feature races, it took an Always A Virgin x Leagueoferown filly called Royal Story to land him a Group 1 success.

It came in the $153,000 three-year-old fillies final of the NSW Breeders Challenge series.

“They’ve evaded me before this. I’ve probably been doing this since I was 18 or something, so around 35 years,” Hewitt said.

“I’ve run three seconds in the local Group 1s, the Gold Crown … I’ve won a lot of Group 2s and Group 3s, but this is my first Group 1.

“I’ve won a lot of feature races, but never one of these ones, so it’s nice to get the monkey off the back. It is a great thrill to finally get it obviously.”

A previous NSW Oaks and Bathurst Gold Bracelet finalist, Royal Story was the $5 second elect for Sunday’s feature, $1.50 favouritism belonging to the Jason Grimson trained and driven Dont Think Twice.

It the end it came down to a battle between that pair, Royal Story taking the lead from barrier four while Dont Think Twice worked three wide in the middle stages to draw in striking distance of Hewitt’s filly.

The battle down the home straight was intense, but Royal Story showed her strength as she won by a half-head in a career best 1:53.0 mile rate.

She clocked splits of 26.6, 31.0, 27.6 and 27.8 seconds for the quarters of the mile.

Third place went to last year’s two-year-old fillies winner Shezallapples ($12.80), who flew home from the rear of the field.

“Royal Story, she had to work a bit early on to get that front position, it was a fairly quick lead time. I was then fortunate enough to be able to back things off,” Hewitt said.

“It was a real duel at the top of the straight with the favourite all the way up, I think the other one stuck her nose in front.

“She had to fight tooth and nail all the way. It was a great effort to hold them off, especially after she did a lot of work out of the gate.

“She really stood up and got the job done.

“A lot of people in our stable can take some of the credit for this – mostly my wife Cathy who holds us all together and makes wins like this all the more worthwhile.”

With the Breeders Challenge having been the target for Royal Story, she will now head back to the spelling paddock of Gulgong owners Gary and Margaret Meredith.

“They’ll take her home with them and I’m sure spoil her, she’ll come back in the spring time,” Hewitt said.

“We put a lot of work into working with juveniles and to come here and win a race like this makes it all worthwhile.

“But just to be able to train and drive a filly likes this is a great thrill.”

Just as Hewitt, who also had Might And Main ($70.80) place eighth in the 1,609 metres final, was delighted with the win, so too were the owners.

“We’d never send our horses anywhere else,” Gary Meredith said.

“We call Royal Story ‘big girl’ around the stables, but this is actually our 20th win with them as owners and we couldn’t be happier with the way we’ve been treated.”