Winning Horse: Cardinal Gem (Aus)

4yoG Choisir (Aus) - Eloquent Ruby (Aus)(Turffontein (Aus))

14 starts - 3 wins 3 seconds 2 thirds 2 fourths $220485

Other Wins

1st Caulfield Stephen Howell Mem. Trophy Hcp 1400m (2022)

1st Ballarat Synthetic Cervus Equipment Mdn Plate 1200m (2021)

Other Placings

3rd Caulfield Evergreen Turf (Bm78) 1400m (2022)

2nd Flemington Tab Silver Bowl Series Final 1600m (2022)

2nd Flemington Silver Bowl Series Hcp 1400m (2022)

3rd Flemington Flt Lt Peter Armytage Hcp 1200m (2022)

2nd Pakenham Synthetic Spendthrift Australia Mdn 1200m (2021)

Race Result:

1st: Cardinal Gem (Graham Begg/Logan McNeil) - $2.30F

2nd: Kiss Me If You Can (Hanna Powell/Jamie Mott) - $14
3rd: Heavenly Emperor (Stephen Brown/Harry Coffey) - $21

Winning Time: 1:28.80 Last 600m: NA

Margins: 2-½ Lengths x Nose

Winning Trainer: Grahame Begg

On the horse: “He had to do it the tough way but he’s a serious little horse, this horse.

“We’ve always had a very good opinion of him but he hasn’t had a lot of luck earlier in a lot of his races and his record should read a lot better than what it is.

“We felt going into the race he was very well placed dropping back from the 78, it was a solid 78 race at Caulfield a couple of weeks ago, and with Logan’s claim it just brought him in so well at the weights.

“He’s got a good liking for Flemington and I reckon one day he’ll win a decent race for us.”

On the bumping duel early in the straight: “B Prebble, he doesn’t give an inch. He was trying to push him out of the way, but he was getting dictated to a little bit but he waited and bided his time before he really got into him and he hit the line hard.

On the future: “We think next year he might be a Stradbroke horse, 1400 metres up to 1500 is right at the top of his distance range but we know one thing; he loves a solid run race.

“He actually loves good ground, he can really accelerate on the good ground even though he did on the Heavy ground today.

“We thought a race like that, if we can get his rating up and we can earmark him for something during the winter it would be really really good.”

On the rest of this preparation: “We’ll keep on ticking away for a few races, but you’ve got to remember he’s been in work right over the winter and everything and he ran really well in the 1600-metre three-year-old race (Silver Bowl Final) here and feel that the mile is just a bit beyond him so he’s done a god job to keep going. Onwards and upwards.”

Winning Jockey: Logan McNeil

On the horse: “He’s got plenty of plenty of ability that horse he’s just still working it out.

On his thoughts in the run: “We had a bit of an awkward gate which didn’t help us today and he never really travelled, he can travel quite keenly in the run but I think the Heavy 10 just took a little bit out of him today.

“Even when they sprinted for it, he just took a while to build up but once he balanced up in the straight he really let rip and won well.”

“At the top of the straight I thought we were in a bit of trouble but as soon we got going and he straightened up and balanced up in the going he really worked home well.”