The well-travelled Quality Time recorded his first New Zealand victory with a bold front-running performance in Saturday’s Daltons Bream Bay Cup (2100m) at Ruakaka.

The six-year-old made an eye-catching New Zealand debut at Te Rapa in early May with a strong-finishing second behind Turn The Ace over 1200m, but he was tripped up by a heavy track second-up at Pukekohe on May 25 and beat only two runners home. Quality Time bounced back brilliantly on Saturday, aided by an outstanding Sam Spratt ride.

Spratt drove Quality Time forward from the inside gate and withstood plenty of early pressure to take a clear lead by the time the field turned into the back straight. Spratt was able to give her mount the opportunity to catch his breath through the middle stages of the race, then began to up the ante again coming down the side of the track.

Quality Time kicked away and had a big lead coming around the home turn, and the best efforts of the late-finishing Enright and Malfy Rosa only closed that margin to a length at the finish line.

Quality Time is trained by Kylie Hoskin for syndicators Go Racing. Hoskin credited Go Racing manager Albert Bosma for coming up with Saturday’s successful tactics.

“That was a great win,” Hoskin said. “Albert told me before today’s race that this horse had led and won in Germany earlier in his career, so we had a bit of confidence that those tactics might work here too.

“There’s always a bit of a question mark when they’re stepping up over ground for the first time in a preparation, you’re not too sure about their fitness, and he was very fresh today as well. But that was a great effort.

“It’s nice prizemoney that he’s won today, and now we can think about coming back here for some of the other meetings coming up. It’ll give him something to do through the winter.”

Quality Time was bred in Germany, and he began his career there with three wins from seven starts over distances ranging from 1850m to 2200m.

Go Racing then sent him into the powerful Australian stable of Chris Waller, where he had another 22 starts for three wins, five placings and more than A$300,000 in stakes. Now he has been a winner in three different countries.

Quality Time’s overall record stands at 32 starts for seven wins, seven placings and more than $440,000.