Eagles Ace returned to the winners list after move than five years at Junee on Saturday.
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The promising horse has been plagued by tendon problems, but brought up career win number eight in his first start for Coleambally trainer Ellen Bartley.
It was just the third start since September 2015, the nine-year-old just held on to take out the Menangle Country Series heat.
After a long road back to the track, reinsman Blake Jones was pleased to bring up the win for some very patient connections.
"It was good to get the monkey off the back with him," Jones said.
"It was a long time Drew (Kenna) and his old man (Keith) did a lot of work with him to get him back up and we've had him for the last month.
"You never know if he's going to go sore again so it was good to get to the races and get a win."
Eagles Ace won seven of his first 14 races, and was only unplaced three times in 22 starts before the injury problems struck.
He made a brief comeback last year after more than two years off the track, but was unplaced in both starts.
However he was much improved after another 19 months.
"I don't think he actually broke down last time when they got him up, got him to the races and he had two starts but they weren't happy with him," Jones said.
"They pretty much retired him and where they had him was running low on food so they brought him back into work.
"I don't think they really planned on it but when they had to move him they ended up giving him one more go.
"It's something good to come out of the drought."
Eagles Ace held off Dragon Stride to win by a short half head.
It was part of a treble for both Jones and Bartley.
Jones also combined with Chris Hughes and Carramar Arapaho before steering Bold Art for Peter Dennis.
All three led all the way.
"It's always the best place to be," Jones said.
"Everyone has to chase you then.
"It was a pretty good night considering we didn't know how we would get through it with the rain predicted."
Bartley also drove Uroc Baby to victory for Rick Burnett before finishing off the night with Tygerphinn.
Coming off a second in his second start for the stable, Typerphinn was able to get run down leader Our Sams Home to win by a head.
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