KEY POINTS:
Corey Brown picked up a lucky winning ride on Devil Moon in the Group One Turnbull Stakes at Flemington after Hugh Bowman succumbed to a bout of food poisoning and had to forfeit the mount yesterday.
Trainer Mark Kavanagh is excited with the emerging mare who upstaged some of the best gallopers in Australia to win the $500,000 2000m feature from outsider Scenic Shot and Haradasun.
A beaming Brown said he thought Bowman was sicker after the race than before.
Kavanagh doesn't know yet what to do with Devil Moon for the rest of the spring.
The Flemington trainer said he would let the dust settle before deciding whether Devil Moon went for the $2.5 million Caulfield Cup (2400m) on October 20 or the $3 million Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley a week later.
El Daana, considered by trainer David Hayes to be his third string, scored an upset win in the Group Two fillies feature, the Edward Manifold Stakes.
Rated a $16 chance and starting in blinkers for the first time, El Daana raced handier than expected in the 1620m event and got home by a long neck from Serious Speed ($21), who ran on from near last, with Absolut Glam ($9) a half-neck back third.
Only a year ago Hayes was scratching his head after his stable star Miss Finland started odds-on in the Edward Manifold and was rolled by She Will Be Loved from the Mat Ellerton stable.
"I thought I would win it last year but wasn't so sure today," Hayes said.
Blue Diamond Stakes winner Sleek Chassis was his preferred choice yesterday ahead of Extension of Time but both finished out of a place.
Hayes said he always rated El Daana as his best chance for next month's VRC Oaks (2500m) and yesterday's win only fuelled his expectations that he could win the race again after Miss Finland's success in the Classic last year.
El Daana was having only her fourth race start yesterday and won the Listed Queen Adelaide Stakes (1100m) at Morphettville at her only start as a 2-year-old.
She was unplaced at her two previous starts this campaign, finishing fourth to Bel Mer in the Quezette Stakes and last start, against the colts, never threatened when seventh to Pins On Parade over 1400m.
- AAP
