A determined MacO'Reilly held off a strong challenge from three-year-old Tell A Tale to win the Group One International Stakes at Te Rapa.Jockey Hayden Tinsley took MacO'Reilly to the front about 1400m from home in Saturday's 2000m feature and fought back strongly when Tell A Tale challenged to win the weight-for-age contest by a half-head.It was the first Group One for the son of O'Reilly and vindicated the faith of his Foxton trainer David Haworth."He won his first race but he was a big, weak

A determined MacO'Reilly held off a strong challenge from three-year-old Tell A Tale to win the Group One International Stakes at Te Rapa.

Jockey Hayden Tinsley took MacO'Reilly to the front about 1400m from home in Saturday's 2000m feature and fought back strongly when Tell A Tale challenged to win the weight-for-age contest by a half-head.

It was the first Group One for the son of O'Reilly and vindicated the faith of his Foxton trainer David Haworth.

"He won his first race but he was a big, weak horse early," Haworth said.

"I told his owners they would need to wait and wait, but that they would get their due rewards eventually."

Haworth bought MacO'Reilly as a yearling for $NZ52,000.

He will now head to Ellerslie for the New Zealand Stakes (2000m), also at weight-for-age, on March 7.

Tell A Tale, the Two Thousand Guineas winner in November, fought on strongly after getting a nice run.

He will gallop between races at Matamata in two weeks before running in the Group One New Zealand Derby (2400m) on February 28.

Veloce Bella ran home well on the fence to take third from O'Reilly Rose.