Gold Ace overcame an outside draw and outfinished the favourite Hands Christian by half a head.
"I thought he had no chance of winning at the 600m," Reid said.
Reid put his judgement on the line when he arranged the buyout of a half share in Gold Ace after the colt had won a race from seven starts as a 2yr-old. The buyout followed Reid ending his training partnership with Graeme Rogerson.
"I wanted $100,000 for the half share and Graeme felt that was too much so I got a group together to buy the colt," Reid said.
Gold Ace is now raced by Reid's wife, Wendy, Pukekohe breeder Derek Moore, Michael Ng, of Auckland and the D D syndicate.
Empyrean tangled at the 400m and lost his chance.
"He got his head around and got on a knee," Dexter Dunn, his driver, said.
Ima Gold Digger easily won the New Zealand Trotting Free-For-All in record time.
His 3.13.3 for the 2600m (mobile) was 0.9sec inside the New Zealand record set by Romper Stomper in the 2007 NZ Trotting FFA.
