The Steven Ramsay & Julia Ritchie trained Guiseppina has taken her first win of the season today at the Levin Classic meeting at Otaki in the Listed Chainey's Panasonic Levin Stakes (1200m).

Bred by Peter and Philip Vela and ridden by jockey James McDonald from the wide barrier of nine, Guiseppina (Johar x Battocchi) jumped well to settle one off the rail, four-lengths from the lead.

Biding his time in the saddle, McDonald brought the mare wide late on the turn and balanced her up before setting her alight, and with a brief show of the whip, she burst to the lead and strode out to the line to win by one-and-three-quarter-lengths.

“It’s nice to see her back,” said Steven Ramsay. “She just needed a dry track and she got that today which is great, we are very proud of her.

“We now have to sit down with Peter and make a plan for her. She has so much brilliance over the 1200-1400 metres so maybe that’s what we will keep her racing over.”

The win was her first of the season after she ran a nose second fresh up in Hawkes Bay in a $40,000 1200 metre handicap on Group 1 Windsor Park Challenge Stakes day. Unlucky second up, she struck a dead track in the Taranaki Breeders’ Stakes in a tough run, and was unplaced after striking another dead track in Melbourne in the Group 1 Myer Classic at her last start.

The victory was her second at black-type level after winning the Listed Flying Handicap in April last season. Her impressive record now stands at 11 starts for five wins, four of which have come on good tracks, and two placings.