Glen Boss had to convince the owners of Lucky Hussler to run the sprinter in the William Reid Stakes and it paid off as the gelding stormed to his first Group One win.

The Darren Weir-trained gelding was beaten in a photo finish to the Group One Emirates Stakes in his final start of the spring and returned to go one better first-up in Friday night's weight-for-age sprint at Moonee Valley.

Lucky Hussler ($12) was midfield before Boss got him into the clear on the outside from the top of the straight and then Lucky Hussler stormed past his rivals to beat Vain Queen ($5) by 1-3/4 lengths.

Griante ($31) ran a big race to finish another nose away third while three-year-old Earthquake, who started the $4.60 favourite, came in fifth.

Boss was convinced five-year-old Lucky Hussler was a forgotten horse in the race and said he talked the owners into running instead of waiting for the $2.5 million TJ Smith Stakes on Saturday week in Sydney because he felt there was a good opportunity for the horse to win a Group One on Friday night.

"He's a pretty good horse and I was pretty confident," Boss said.

"I actually had a five minute phone call with the owners to talk them into running. They wanted to go to the TJ first-up.

"I said there was $240,000 (first prizemoney) here for someone to take and I reckon he's the horse."

Lucky Hussler was formerly trained in Queensland before joining Weir's stable before last year's spring carnival.

Weir brought up his third Group One win for the season and said Lucky Hussler, a Group Three winner last campaign, had returned a better horse this time in.

"He had two trials going into this and John Allen, our main track rider at home, was giving him glowing reports," Weir said.

Vain Queen notched her first Group One placing in her second attempt at the highest level.