It had been more than 2½ years since Mount Gambier trainer Adam Mackereth won his last race at Tara Raceway – with Azumi Spirit.

All told, the daughter of Dyna Tron x Azumi Touch won five races for Mackereth. Also on track, more often than not, had been his faithful band of supporters which included wife Kerry, kids Coco and Summer, mum Jo, Ian and Val Kenny and Gabriel Electrical past and present workmates.

And they were out in force again on Sunday to watch Four Longnecks make her debut for the hobby trainer in the Metal Worx Maiden Stake (305 metres).

It was a debut that gave the supporter base plenty to cheer about after the fawn daughter of Elite State and Dusty Pearl led all the way from box two to defeat Sinatra Bay by two lengths in 17.72 seconds.

With Dusty Pearl being a litter sister to Azumi Spirit, it’s probably not all that surprising that Mackereth had been keen to purchase a pup from her litter of three dogs and three bitches that was bred by Steve Bartholomew at Worrolong in December 2020.

Ultimately he ended up with two pups. And by his own admission he was looking forward to exciting times ahead with part-owners Wal Egan, Chris Gabriel and Ian Ross.

“The pups were well-reared locally by Tracie Price. Following that, I was more than hopeful of a good breaking-in report and then I would look for a trainer for the pair,” Mackereth said.

“But the breaking-in report had been disappointing so I brought them home and eventually was able to get them going by way of the Tara Raceway trials.”

Two Fifty Three, the litter sister, made her debut on July 3 when running second in a quick 17.68 seconds to litter brother Hellboy, owned and trained at Compton by Robert Chuck.

But a week later Two Fifty Three copped 28 days for marring when running second to Bungaloo Darcy. Those exciting times looked to be just a forlorn hope, given that Four Longnecks also had problems – of a different kind.

“In what could only be described as a freak accident, she had run full bore into a gate at home and to be honest it looked pretty ugly,” Mackereth said. “The report was that she had swelling on the brain and to be prepared for the worst.”

But Four Longnecks survived the ordeal. In fact, a couple of months later she was ready to go again.

“Needless to say, I was pretty happy when she ran 17.90 seconds at her first go out of boxes,” he said. “After that she just kept getting quicker with each run prior to trialling well leading into Sunday’s first race start.”

Early starts six days a week in his employment means Mackereth is out and about in the dark most mornings with his dogs. Not that he would change anything. After all, he’s back once again contemplating those exciting times ahead.

Meanwhile, litter brother Unique Pearl, trained by Elysia Bartholomew, followed up his maiden win of the previous week with a convincing 2¼ length win over Menari Houdini in the Williams Crane Hire Juvenile Stake in a time of 17.70 seconds.