First to salute was Golden Slipper winner Overreach's full sister Marishka (read about her here) and then it was the turn of Godolphin colt Malahat, who was Group III placed last season at two.
The James Cummings trained Malahat placed behind star colts Invader and Pariah at two, so was sent out a short priced favourite in the Benchmark 74 event over 1200 metres, despite taking on older horses.
He travelled just behind the leaders and kicked clear to win by three-quarters of a length, his second win from seven starts with prizemoney topping $90,000.
"He's a really nice colt," James Cummings said.
"He's got a good record here at Canterbury, he's got a good record full stop.
"He's got form around all the right horses and it was good to see him beat the older horses.
"It's not the easiest thing in the world to do and we were hoping for him
to come here and take a nice step forward from he produced first-up and he was
unlucky not to win first-up but he got the advantage of a really good run in
the race today."The performance has prompted Cummings to set his sights higher with the son of Exceed And Excel.
"He's a very fast young colt and if he's up to a race like the Heritage then we'll give that some thought," Cummings said.
"It's not an easy feat for a horse of his age to beat the older horses and he's done that well so he can race well back against three-year-olds."
Malahat is the first foal of Group III winning Lonhro mare Raspberries, who comes from the family of Group I winners Flavour and Sonntag.
Malahat has a two year-old full sister called Fallgold and Raspberries has a yearling filly by Medaglia D'Oro (USA) and was covered again by Exceed and Excel last spring.
