Former Western Australian galloper Daka's Gem has caused a boilover by grabbing last year's winner Sentire in the dying stages to win the last feature race of the Victorian spring racing carnival - the $121,000 Ballarat Cup - on Wednesday.
The nine-year-old gelding, now trained at Moorooduc on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula by David Brideoake, relished the heavy conditions to score by half a length from the Robbie Laing trained Sentire with last week's Bendigo Cup winner Banana Man a long neck away in third.
Daka's Gem, which paid a healthy $14.90 for the win, had come off a luckless campaign in which he ran sixth in a 2000 metre race on the last day of the Flemington carnival and prior to that sixth in the Werribee Cup and fourth at Moe.
But Brideoake told TVN after the shock win that the heavy track for the 2200-metre event combined with drawing barrier one had proved the difference for Daka's Gem.
"This horse has had no luck - bad gates, racing tight and he is a wet tracker," Brideoake said.
Winning jockey Peter Mertens, in his first Ballarat Cup success since 1992, agreed with Brideoake's summary.
"Today the rain came and he drew a good barrier and (the going) on the fence was okay."
"He reared a bit at the start but he had a nice run from then on."
But Mertens was concerned that Sentire had pinched a winning break when he shot two lengths clear halfway down the straight.
"I thought he had a winning break but he really lengthened in the last furlong and I knew I was going to get him."
The racing focus now shifts to Western Australia with Perth's richest race - the Group One $1 million Railway Stakes to be run over 1600 metres this Saturday at Ascot.
The race will feature a number of top eastern states' gallopers including the Gai Waterhouse trained Bank Robber, the Mick Price trained Rightfully Yours and the David Hayes' trained pair of Niconero and The Fuzz up against Perth's best horses including the Fred Kersley trained Marasco, which has top weight of 57.5kg.