El Luchador’s victory in the Kiwifruit Cup (2100m) at Tauranga on Saturday was a boost for Cambridge trainer Mark Brooks after his recent return to New Zealand.

“It was a great win, we are all happy,” Brooks said. “Frank (Drummond, owner) had leased some of the horse out, so we had a few first-time owners and they had a ball.

“He had a hurdle trial only a few weeks ago and he’s got half his hurdle ticket, but he’ll probably stay on the flat for another couple of runs now anyway.”

Brooks had been training at Ballarat in Victoria, but found after a few months that New Zealand was the better option for his operation.

However, the Cambridge conditioner hasn’t found it easy re-establishing himself in his homeland, but he said he has received great support from owners such as Frank Drummond, who owns El Luchador and stood his ill-fated sire El Hermano.

“The (Ballarat) club didn’t quite come to the party on everything they said they were going to, so we tossed and turned for a while and then we decided we were probably better off back in New Zealand,” Brooks said.

“It’s probably taken us a while (to re-establish the stable in New Zealand), but that’s to be expected and a lot of our owners have been great supporters since we’ve returned.

“Frank’s been a big supporter. We normally had five or six horses in work for Frank and he’s currently supporting us with that number.

“We have got about 25 in work, but probably half of them are racehorses and half of them are horses we are educating for Hong Kong and Singapore.”

Brooks formerly trained out of a barn now occupied by Trina and Jonathan Riddell at the Cambridge training track, but he hasn’t moved far to his new quarters.

“We’ve got another stable just right next to the Cambridge track,” he said.

While he is enjoying his time back in New Zealand, Brooks hasn’t ruled out a return to Australia in the future.

“Cambridge is as good a place as any in the world to live, so we are enjoying being back in New Zealand,” he said.

“But hopefully if we get a couple of horses that are good enough we will go back.”