James McDonald has celebrated his first winner in Britain at just his second ride, guiding Cable Bay home at Leicester.

The New Zealand champion settled in Sydney a year ago after taking his homeland by storm to ride more than 200 winners from 896 rides in the 2010-11 season.

The 21-year-old has already won 13 Group One races and is spending the summer at Charlie Hills' stable for more experience.

He repaid the Lambourn yard with victory on Cable Bay (7-1) in the Pytchley Maiden Stakes.

McDonald plans to go home in July with the dream of winning the Melbourne Cup in which he was second last year on the Gai Waterhouse-trained Fiorente.

Cable Bay had shaped well on his Nottingham debut and stayed on strongly to score by three-quarters from Whaleweigh Station, with Hatha Hooh another nose away in third.

"He is a really nice horse and is probably going somewhere in the future. He was a bit green today, got away with it," McDonald said.

"I'm grateful to my sponsor for bringing me over and to Charlie Hills for this opportunity.

"A change is just as good as a holiday so I came up here. It's great to ride for a specialist stable and I grabbed it with both hands.

"I've got a return ticket home in July so I'll go home then and get ready for the spring and hopefully win a Melbourne Cup."