Winning races is nothing new to Murray Johnson - it's winning them in Australia that's the novelty.

Johnson, who trained for 20 years in the United States, had a winner with his first Australian runner at Seymour on Tuesday.

And for the man who has saddled runners in some of America's biggest races, the victory of Corregio in the 0-62 Handicap was one the most emotional of his career.

Johnson, 53, fought back tears after he led in his breakthrough winner owned by an old school friend.

"It's what we do it for," Johnson said.

"He's a quality horse, he wasn't one hundred per cent fit but I told his owners before the race that if he was one hundred per cent fit then he'd beat them easily."

Corregio was transferred from his original trainer Peter Moody to Johnson by new owner Michael Ramsden, providing the pair with a dream result.

"The horse has had a few problems and the original owners wanted to sell him, so Michael put together a group of owners who were good enough to put him in my stable," he said.

Johnson said his initial concern was to make sure the horse whose last run was in the Geelong Classic last spring, pulled up well from Tuesday's run and trained on well enough to be stepped up to his right distance.

Despite not having trained a winner in Australia before Tuesday, Johnson has strong links to one of Victoria's most prominent racing families.

His grandfather was William Samuel Cox, founder of the Moonee Valley Racing Club and after whom the Cox Plate is named.

Johnson arrived in the United States in 1982, later becoming assistant trainer to John Gosden, taking out a licence of his own when Gosden returned to England in 1988.

His best horse in America was Perfect Drift, the winner of seven stakes races and a runner in five Breeders' Cup events, finishing third in the BC Classic in 2005.