It was his first run in six months with only one trial and he had to carry top weight of 60.5kg, conceding weight to every other horse.

Lees was pleased with the effort considering the horse was wide with no cover under the guidance of jockey Singleton's Aaron Bullock.

“As a colt he was turning it up in his races but this time he fought on and is back on track,” he said.

“He has won by half a neck at Muswellbrook, so I am not getting carried away but he will go back to Sydney, probably over 1000 metres on Boxing Day.

“Eventually I think he is going to be better over 1200 metres because he has a high cruising speed.”

As an early three-year-old Guard Of Honour won the Listed Heritage Stakes at Randwick and ran fourth in the Listed Brian Crowley and second in the Group Three Eskimo Prince.

That earned him a trip to Caulfield where he finished 11th in the Oakleigh Plate, beaten five and a half lengths.

“If you go back and have a look at the Oakleigh it was a far better effort than the result suggests,” foreman Keiren Forbes, who saddled up Guard Of Honour, said.

After that the horse seemed to lose focus and after unplaced runs at Doomben and Rosehill he was gelded and given a long break to recover.

“Gelding him has been the making of the horse,” Forbes said.

“He was racing as a full-on colt before that.”

Guard Of Honour prevailed in a three-way photo-finish to beat the leader Hard Romp with the Phillip Atkins-trained Star Crossed turning in a big effort to finish a close third at his first run back.

“I don’t know anything about the second horse but know the third horse has a lot of ability, so that adds a little more to the win,” Lees said.