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As a proud Aboriginal man, Longreach trainer Mark Oates is eager to represent his area and stable on the big stage of the Country Cups Challenge Final at Doomben later this year.

Oates' Van Winkel was a striking winner of Saturday's $27,500 Longreach Cup, which booked his entry for the $105,000 Final in Brisbane in early December.

The breakthrough Longreach Cup victory was more than 12 months in the making for seven-year-old gelding Van Winkel, who was purchased for the 2020 version of the race but ran a gallant second.

Oates, who rides all his own track work, as well working a full-time job as a spray painter on top of training a team of horses, is one of only a few Indigenous thoroughbred race horse trainers within Queensland.

Van Winkel won in owner Richard Simpson's colours on Saturday afternoon but there is other gallopers within the Oates barn who don colours as a nod to his heritage.

"It is great to represent the Aboriginal people," Oates explained on Saturday afternoon with the Longreach Cup in his hands.

"My mother was Aboriginal and my father was white, white Irish.

"We have a few horses with the colours of a green shamrock in the middle with black everything else on the silks. 

"The black is for the blackfellas and the green is for the Irish."

Ridden by Jason Missen, Van Winkel sat behind the leader at a slow pace for much of the mile trip and was able to present himself as they turned for home, scoring by a length as the field tried to close the gap but battled to do so.

The 2021 Longreach Cup boasted a strong field of bush Open Company gallopers, which first-year Longreach Jockey Club president Andrew Watts believes was only enhanced by being a CCC Qualifier.

"The concept is still in its infancy but how good is it because most of our stakeholders out here in the west do the horses as a part-time job, or as a hobby, we have very few full-time trainers out here," Watts said.

"To get a horse to Brisbane and race for the city riches, it is fantastic.

"We have seen the success of the Battle of the Bush and the evolution of how far it has come in a short number of years, the Country Cups Challenge and the Country Stampede are certainly following in their footsteps as well."

Since transferring to Oates' stable earlier this year, Van Winkel has now won three times from 16 efforts, going around at $17 in the TAB meeting from Longreach on Saturday.

"The horse has had a few problems, he has been out of form," Oates said.

"To the horse's credit, he has come through it as the horse has got the ability. He toughed it out."