Bartley has fond memories of the Albury Paceway after also scoring her first career victory at the track with La Moray almost three years ago.

Trained by Kialla horseman Steve O’Donoghue, Bookkeeper ($2.70-ef) sat outside race leader Friendsinlowplaces ($2.70-ef) for most of the 2170-metre journey.

The pair quickly cleared out from the rest of the field near the home turn and settled down to stage a two-horse war down the home straight.

Bookkeeper proved too strong over the concluding stages to defeat Friendsinlowplaces by 2.4 metres with Daddys Dollars ($10.70) a further 9.5 metres back in third position.

“It was a good tough win by Bookkeeper and he showed plenty of fight,” O’Donoghue said.

“The two horses cleared out from the rest of the field and we were just that bit stronger on the night.

“I have a bit of an opinion of the horse and hopefully there is a lot bigger wins in store.”

The win was the lightly raced five-year-old’s second career win from only his fourth race start.

“He was an immature horse and it has taken a while to get him to the races,” he said.

“He always had a few niggling injuries that also delayed his first start.”

Bartley made it a race-to-race double when she piloted Saphira ($4.60) to victory for Benalla trainer Jason Ross.

Saphira was formerly trained by O’Donoghue but is now prepared by Ross who is O’Donoghue’s brother-in-law.

Ross only recently regained his trainer’s licence after a 21-year hiatus and Saphira was his first winner since making a comeback.

Victorian raiders dominated the meeting with Doc Wilson (Our Archangel) and Rita Burnett (Stormee) also training winners on the six-race card.