Lightly-raced six-year-old gelding Cradle Mountain broke through for his first win since taking out a benchmark 88 (1300m) at Rosehill in November 2018 in scoring here. Having his second run this preparation, rider Jason Collett let him take up his favoured front-running role and he ran along at a good tempo. He held a good break at the 300m and then fought back to score well, his seventh win in 17 starts. Cellarman settled in seventh place on the rails, improved between runners at the home turn, got through to be in a challenging position at the 100m and then kept fighting well to take second in a photo from Gaulois who looked dangerous at the 100m, after coming from third last in the 11-horse field at the home turn, to finish third. The favourite Southern Lad had a nice trip back in sixth place, eased into clear running at the 300m and then kept fighting on quite well to finish (1.5 lengths) fourth.