“I’m absolutely wrapped, to be honest,” she told The Informant.

“It hasn’t even really sunken in yet.”

Isherwood pulled off an excellent front-running drive on the daughter of Art Official, who is trained at Glenbrook by her boss, Adrienne Matthews.

It was fitting that her maiden win in the cart came on Jude’s Gem as they arrived at the stable around the same time and Isherwood does a lot of work with the mare.

“She’s definitely one of my favourites.

“She was one of the first ones I drove at home after I arrived there coming up two years ago.”

The instructions from Matthews were pretty clear after Jude’s Gem had met with bad luck in recent starts.

“The plan was to go forward from the draw to lead and see how we go.

“If we really got looked at, I would hand up, but she was quite happy rolling along out in front.”

They tried to peg her back late in the stretch, but Jude’s Gem staved them all off for a gritty win.

Isherwood says her first taste of harness racing came by chance when she was riding trackwork in West Auckland.

“I rode trackwork for nine years and one guy I was helping out, who only had one galloper, he asked me one day if I wanted a half share in a pacer.

“I thought why not? I’ll give it a go.”

Her name was Love My Way and she won on the grass at Ruakaka at just her third start for Isherwood and her partner in the horse, “coming from last right down the outside to win”.

It’s fair to say Isherwood was hooked from that day on.

Roydon Downey did the driving that day and it was he who she had to thank for getting her the job with Matthews on the other side of Auckland.

“He told me Adrienne was looking for someone and that’s how I come to work for her.”

Isherwood has no lofty goals in the interim, apart from getting more drives in juniors’ races and experiencing that winning feeling again.

“I think in the long term I would like to train a few of my own one day, but for now I would just like to drive more winners.”

Matthews said it was a really satisfying win for connections as they had put their neck out and boought Jude’s Gem off other stable clients when an Australian offer was received late last year.

“Anne and Steve Phillips owned her originally and when they got a good offer from Australia, they were kind enough to let us buy her at that price if we wanted to keep her in the stable.

“She’s from a really good family and is a pretty handy mare so will make a great broodmare one day.”

Matthews and partner Matt Stormont own the horse with her mother, Philippa Butcher and Butcher’s husband, Johnnie.

Joining them in the ownership is wheelchair-bound Graham Williams, who has gone from to stable fan boy to family friend in recent years and was present in the winner’s circle with Isherwood.

“He was a huge fan of Shestherealdeal and Sailesh Abernethy, who used to drive her,” said Matthews.

“One day he asked Sailesh if he could introduce me to him and it’s gone from there.

“He hardly ever misses a race meeting and he comes out to the stables and stays with us and watches the team work.

“He took a small share in Jude’s Gem and was over the moon to be there for her win tonight.”

Matthews herself was happy to be back in the winner’s circle after a stealth virus had rocked her team for the past few months.

“The whole team had it. But there was no snotty nose, no coughing, perhaps the only real sign was that they were off their feed a wee bit.

“They would trial well and then run no good and the blood’s kept showing the viral infection was lingering.

“After one good hit out, they were getting flattened.”

But Jude’s Gem is over it now and the family – Isherwood included – are hoping there are many more wins to come.