O’Reilly was having her first drive at just her second meeting back in the sulky after sustaining a nasty arm injury in a trackwork incident in July last year.
With 304 victories to her name, the winning feeling is nothing unusual for the talented reinswoman.
But she admitted she got an extra kick out of getting back into the winner’s circle with her employers, Brent and Tim White.
"It was a great thrill, it has been hard not being able to drive because when you are out there it’s such a different feeling."
"She had been working well and the team think she’s a nice horse, so it was great to be able to get the job done."
After a lengthy battle to get her injured arm back to where it needed to be for driving, O’Reilly was back in action at Addington on Friday night before heading to Oamaru to win yesterday’s opener.
The wait to get back out on the track on race day is one O’Reilly had got used to as it went on.
"At the start it was pretty frustrating, but as time went on it got better and I got used to it."
O’Reilly’s arm has clearly been given the tick of approval for work and race driving, but she continues to work to build strength back into it.
"My arm has completely healed now but I am still working on my strength a little bit with my physio."
"I am still going to the gym to get it back to where it was, but it is pretty good at the moment."
"I don’t have any problems, except that the skin is numb."
"They said it could be like that for a while and that it was pretty normal because of the damage to the nerves."
O’Reilly was competing all over New Zealand before her injury, before returning with a handful of drives over the weekend.
Now she hoped to build her base of drives back up, though she admitted it would not be easy.
"I am trying my best, but it will probably take a while to build my drives back up to where they were."
Later on the Oamaru card, Tokyo Rose ran a strong front-running victory in the Oamaru Cup.
Driver Blair Orange had the mare in front soon after the start, the pair running home in fast splits to set the backmarkers an impossible task.
The victory took Orange to 2995 wins in New Zealand, just five short of joining the elite 3000-win club.
