Shane Dye has celebrated his first win since making a riding comeback with a low-key victory at Pukekura on Thursday.

The champion jockey only returned to competition last month after more than two years away from the sport.

His first race ride back was aboard Goyescas in New Zealand on November 9 and this week the Jason Bridgman-trained mare delivered Dye's breakthrough win.

Goyescas, a daughter of 2003 South Australian Oaks winner Larrocha, took out Thursday's West End Bowling Club Maiden (1400m) by 3-1/2 lengths.

Dye began his career in New Zealand in the early 1980s when he was apprenticed to Dave O'Sullivan.

He moved to Sydney where he won two jockeys' premierships and established himself as one of the country's top riders.

His big race wins include the 1989 Melbourne Cup aboard Tawriffic and four successive Golden Slippers from 1989 to 1992 on Courtza, Canny Lad, Tierce and Burst.

Dye took up an opportunity in Hong Kong in the late 1990s and rode there for several years with great success before suffering serious head injuries in a race fall at Sha Tin in 2006.

He returned to the saddle a few months later but in 2010 lost his desire to compete and took a break from racing.