Apprentice Zac Lloyd has celebrated one of the most significant wins of his fledgling career with victory aboard Athelric in the $300,000 The Warra at Kembla Grange.

One of the feature races on Saturday’s stand-alone Kembla program, The Warra attracted a handy field but it was the Godolphin four-year-old who proved superior, appreciating a class drop from his recent performances in stakes grade.

Lloyd said the race had looked an ideal target for Athelric on paper but with that came pressure to get the job done.

The young rider rose to the occasion, keeping a cool head to camp Athelric ($5) on the back of the leading pair before producing him halfway up the straight and while placegetters Key Largo ($15) and Dragonstone ($7) made late headway, Athelric had the race in hand.

“I thought I was going to win a bit easier. He actually made me have to remind me, he got there and stargazed a bit,” Lloyd said.

“But he’s a very nice horse, he puts himself in the race nicely and he’s very good at executing his job.”

Lloyd said he was grateful to the Godolphin team for their show of faith in booking him for a feature race ride.

The son of former top jockey Jeff Lloyd, Zac Lloyd is indentured to Godolphin’s head trainer James Cummings and says the opportunity to ride horses of Athelric’s quality is a major career boost.

“It’s a nice race, nice prizemoney, a nice cheque,” Lloyd said.

“But I’m just happy I’m getting the rides. You can’t do it without the horse and big thanks to James, he’s a genius and I’m just happy he is supporting me on days like this because it really helps me.”

Godolphin stable representative Paul Reid said the team felt Athelric was well placed in The Warra (1000m) where he carried 53.5kg after Lloyd’s three-kilo claim.

“It was probably a little drop in grade and the timing was spot-on for today,” Reid said.

Malkovich started a $3.40 favourite but didn’t jump as sharply as expected and had to muster speed to sit outside leader Remlap’s Gem, battling to the line fairly to finish fifth.