Delorean cleared maiden ranks in style at Ruakaka on Saturday when snaring the lion’s share of the $60,000 purse on offer in the ITM/GIB 3YO Winter Championship Final (1600m).

After jumping away fairly, leading apprentice jockey Tayla Mitchell elected to ease her charge back to the rear of the field before sending her three-wide at the 1200m mark.

The pair made steady progress around the field and hit the lead when turning for home. They were able to hold onto their advantage and fend off the late challenge by Group One performer Mischief Managed to win by half a length.

The daughter of Time Test had finished fourth on the Cambridge synthetic in her two previous starts and Fawcett shared the same outlook as punters, with the filly paying a $32.40 winning dividend.

“I was more hopeful than confident, but I wanted to try her on a better track over 1600m and that was really our only option. When we qualified for the race I thought we might as well have a go,” said Fawcett, who also part-owns the filly.

“She has had some really good runs and then she had thrown in a bit of a disappointing run when we expected her to take that next step and potentially win.

“She has just been a real work in progress and needed a bit of time.”

Identified by bloodstock agent Paul Willetts as a yearling, Fawcett was taken by Delorean when inspecting the Book 2 draft of Little Avondale Stud at Karaka in 2021 and went to $32,500 to secure her.

“She wasn’t very big, she was definitely on the smaller side. She had a great walk and was very athletic. When she first came out, I thought ‘wow’, and it was her walk that sold her to us,” Fawcett said.

Fawcett’s initial impression was that the filly would be a precocious type and make a juvenile, and while she had two runs as a two-year-old, both at stakes level, it proved not to be the case.

“When we were buying the first crop (of Time Test) they looked like real natural, muscle, get-up and go early type of horses. That is the path we went with her, which was probably to her detriment,” she said.

“With time, she has strengthened up mentally and physically, and has been able to put it all together and get that win.

“I have got two of them (Time Tests) in my stable and I like both of them, I think they have both got potential to win races.”

Fawcett was delighted to get the result at Ruakaka, a track she said has been a godsend for northern trainers during the wet winter months.

“They have certainly copped the rain up there but for the track to still run like it has, has been fantastic,” she said.

Fawcett doesn’t have any set plans with Delorean but at this stage she isn’t eyeing any black-type targets.

“We are just going to go through the grades,” she said.

“It was my mistake to overplace her in those (stakes) races as a two-year-old. We did have a good opinion of her, it was just really hard to try and place her in a normal two-year-old race so we opted for that and it backfired. She was green and wasn’t ready for it.

“The last two campaigns have been about undoing those starts as a two-year-old and trying to get her to race more tractably.

“We won’t aim too high, she will just go through the grades and see where we end up.”

Fawcett also lined-up Aoide at Ruakaka where she was unplaced in the Happy 70^th Murray (1200m).

“We put the blinkers back on her, she raced in them last prep,” Fawcett said.

“She got up on the bridle and over-raced. She just wouldn’t come back to Tayla (Mitchell, jockey).

“I will probably leave the blinkers on and look to go back to the synthetic over a shorter distance and start to get a bit of confidence back with her.