Tenacious gelding Border Rebel gave trainer Sue Grills some consolation for missing the Group Three George Moore Stakes at Doomben when he scored a gritty victory at Rosehill.Grills had hoped to give Border Rebel his first shot at stakes company in Saturday's Brisbane feature but scratched him when he drew barrier 16 in the 17-horse field.Instead, Grills and Border Rebel headed to Sydney and the four-year-old racked up his ninth win from 12 starts when he dug deep to stave off Dorf Command and w

Tenacious gelding Border Rebel gave trainer Sue Grills some consolation for missing the Group Three George Moore Stakes at Doomben when he scored a gritty victory at Rosehill.

Grills had hoped to give Border Rebel his first shot at stakes company in Saturday's Brisbane feature but scratched him when he drew barrier 16 in the 17-horse field.

Instead, Grills and Border Rebel headed to Sydney and the four-year-old racked up his ninth win from 12 starts when he dug deep to stave off Dorf Command and win the Darley Stud Hcp (1100m) by a head.

"He drew barrier 16 in Brisbane and he couldn't possibly win from there, it was the visitor's draw," Grills said.

"It was disappointing we didn't go to Brisbane but we won here so that's something.

"He just likes to win, you could see him dig deep today."

Border Rebel has now won his past five starts and Grills is hoping to take him north at some stage this summer but has no set race in mind at this stage.

The bush galloper was ridden to victory by 16-year-old Timothy Bell who is apprenticed to Grills and has been aboard Border Rebel in eight of his nine wins.

Bell said he thought he was beaten when Dorf Command got on terms with him in the straight but his mount refused to lay down.

"He was entitled to get beaten," Bell said.

"Ten (metres) out from the line I was going to get beaten.

"I put the stick away and just started to slap him around the shoulders and he just found that extra head.

"He is just an exceptional horse and I've loved him from day one."

Border Rebel started favourite despite drifting from $2.30 to $2.70 and got the photo-finish verdict over Dorf Command ($5.50) with The Take ($61) kicking back to grab third just ahead of topweight News Alert ($4.60) who challenged at the top of the straight but died on his run.

The gelding was having his first run in three weeks and trainer Con Karakatsanis said it told in the final stages.