Just days after the death of Chance Bye, her regular rider Kathy O'Hara has claimed a sentimental win on the mare's first foal.

O'Hara urged Dreams Alive across the line with the three-year-old getting the short half head decision over Reference in a photo-finish at Kembla Grange on Tuesday.

Like the speedy Chance Bye who O'Hara rode in all her nine race starts including the 2010 Group Two Silver Slipper, Dreams Alive is part-owned and trained by Mick Tubman who has not been in the best of health.

"I'm rapt to win for Mick," O'Hara told Sky Thoroughbred Central.

"He's not been well and is at the doctor today.

"The mare died during the week which is so sad.

"He (Mick) owned half of Chance Bye and owns half of this one."

O'Hara said Dreams Alive was nothing like his mother whose three wins came at her first three starts as a jump-and-run two-year-old.

"He is nothing like her but Mick has worked him out," she said.

The win was O'Hara's first since she returned to riding after an injury-enforced break.

O'Hara came off Single Gaze in the Australian Oaks on April 9, suffering a sterno-clavicular dislocation which needed surgery.

Despite predictions she would be out for three months, O'Hara made her comeback on May 31.