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The Donna Logan-trained Cher opened her account with a hard-fought win in the $20,000 Maiden race over 1600m on Sunday.

The Oscar Racing Stable-owned mare by Showcasing had never earned a place cheque at her previous five starts, but did give obvious signs she had made headway at her last start when a closing fourth to Sun Formation in an Open Maiden race over 1400m.

The step-up to the mile next time out was seen as a logical progression but to see the four-year-old take the lead under apprentice jockey Simon Kok Wei Hoong did take a few by surprise.

Running in the second Oscar colours but trained by Lee Freedman, Mr Rockwell (Syahir Abdul) came ranging alongside Cher into the backstretch, with Glamorous (Mark Ewe) soon joining in to make a line of three.

While Cher  did not have to dig down too deep to shake off her travelling companions upon straightening, Majestic (Benny Woodworth), the fresh legs on the scene, was sneaking up along the rails as the only real threat, but Cher also repelled that rather easily to go and score by 1 ¼ lengths.

Shangani (Juan Paul van der Merwe) was again thereabouts, but again lacked that extra punch, settling for third place another 1 ½ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 39.92secs for the Polytrack mile.

"She didn't acclimatise very well, she was off her feed, but we've turned her around," said Logan.

"Her fifth start was encouraging. We put a claimer on her today and she was well in it.

"I didn't expect her to lead, but she did it easily. I did panic when the other horse came up, but she held on very well."

Logan had Ravi Rawa, an assistant-trainer from Mauritius, among her guests at the lead-in. Rawa is looking to join the Kiwi handler as her assistant-trainer.

"Looks like I brought Donna luck," said the former jockey who gained experience in other aspects of horse training in Perth after he hung up his boots.

"It's a nice set-up here, different from what I'm used to back home. It would be nice to get some work experience here."

Kok, who was coming back from a three-day careless riding suspension, said he was not at all ruffled by the close attention from his rivals for most of the trip.

"The race didn't go to plan, but she pinged out of the gates so good that I decided to take the opportunity to go forward," said Kok, who didn't lose any ground at all in this year's apprentice jockeys' premiership despite being sidelined for three meetings.

"I was told she was one-paced, so I landed in the perfect spot when she got to the front.

"I wasn't sure what the other horse wanted to do. He came next to us but wouldn't go forward to cross us.

"I just allowed my horse to stride comfortably. I was not pushing at all to hold my spot and that's why she still had a kick left in her in the straight."