Fourth twice and second after problems at the start in his other attempts at the weekly country-only city races, Commando Hunt jumped well from gate four in the 1400m class 3 handicap and was perfectly positioned behind the pacesetters by Kathy O'Hara.

The four-year-old Time For War gelding was given clear running in the home straight to hit the lead inside the 200m mark before holding off Whatsin by half a length on the line.

It gave O'Hara her 1000^th career win and brought great satisfaction to Crockett.

"He's a nice horse and I've got to thank a few people because I actually arrived early on Thursday," Crockett told Sky Racing on Saturday.

"I didn't want to take the risk of him having a bad trip down because he's not a good traveller. I stayed at Paul Murray's and Luke Price organised for Brock Ryan to ride him for me yesterday, so everyone has been really accommodating and it's been worth the three days."

Crockett had another rewarding win last month when he guided Mr Hussill to a Highway success after almost two years of injury setbacks.

While he believes Mr Hussill is a contender for the $1.3 million Kosciuszko (1200m) at Randwick in October, he sees Commando Hunt as a Country Championships prospect.

"He's pretty good but he's got these little quirks that come up all the time," he said.

"Last time he travelled down very average when he raced against Mr Hussill, and I think it does cost him a bit.

"So we travelled down Thursday morning and when we got here I thought, geez, I might have wasted a couple of days here, because he travelled fantastic.

"But I think the whole experience will do the horse good.

"We planned it pretty well. We took his bloods on Monday and they showed us he needed a bit more work, so I thought, I'm not going to go three days with question marks, so we give him a fair bit this week and he's just very, very tough.

"I'm really happy because ... you get these horses that you know have got ability and you just can't get it out of them."

O'Hara was pleased to reach her goal of 1000 wins and make up for the last-start fourth with Commando Hunt, which was checked early.

"It was nice to atone with this horse, he was really unlucky the other day first up and he should have just about won there," she said.

"He had a beautiful run today so he made right up for it."