WITH his first win in his debut race under his belt Terang harness racing driver Lochie Cook is already eyeing his next race as he seeks to accomplish all his goals in the sport.
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The 20-year-old led the Marg Lee-trained Keayang Jackie to victory in his first race in a 1680-metre pace on Thursday night at Kilmore.
"It went super. I managed to find the front and get a breather and run away with it," Cook said of how his first race played out.
"They told me about the ride two weeks ago and said I could drive her first up. I'm going to take anything I can get. I knew she was a handy horse and was always going to be a chance."
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Cook, who thanked Marg Lee and her team for giving him the opportunity, said the first-up win would do wonders for his confidence for his next race.
The debut race came over a year-and-a-half after he first picked up the reins for the Lee stable, beginning with trackwork before progressing into trials and finally into his first competitive ride.
"I started working at Terang trotting track as a 16-year-old handing out numbers in the numbers room and then doing that I became friendly with the Lee and Craven groups," he said of his introduction to the sport.
"I heard that Marg always needed extras to work and I came in one day and helped out and before I knew it I was working full-time. I'm lucky to come out here a fair bit.
"At first I was doing it for the money but you really do fall in love with the horses and once I got my first go at driving it was a thrilling."
Cook's next goal is to race more and progress from his B-grade regional licence to an A-grade licence, which allows him to do both regional and metro racing.
The Terang product has been learning as much as he can from fellow driver Jason Lee.
"Jason has been really supportive and literally a lot of the things I know are from him and the insight he has is amazing. He is one of the better drivers going around," he said.
"He always tells me to put safety first and his biggest bit of advice to me is to make the horse feel stronger for longer."
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