Claire Simpson hasn’t taken long to open her training account.

The Byerley Park-based horsewoman’s first representative Velveteen finished second at Matamata earlier this month and they returned there today to win the New Zealand Bloodstock Insurance Series Race (1600m).

It was a deserved victory for the Cameron Lammas-ridden Makfi mare, whose only other two appearance resulted in second placings from Shaune Ritchie’s Cambridge stable.