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A look at some of the action from Caulfield on Saturday.
Teewaters goes back-to-back in VOBIS Gold Stayers
Teewaters registered his first win in 12 months, taking out the VOBIS Gold Stayers (2400m).
The Archie Alexander-trained stayer won the corresponding race last year but had been winless in nine subsequent starts.
The VOBIS Gold Stayers was Teewaters sixth start of the preparation and with spring approaching Alexander said he would see how the gelding recovers from the victory.
"I think we'll keep going but we'll see how he pulls up," Alexander said.
"I think realistically, he's not a proper spring feature horse, but one that may be able to pick up a few nice races around the edges and hopefully find some nice prize money, maybe even the Bendigo Cup on his day.
"Last spring, he wasn't right for whatever reason, but he might be one of those seasonal horses.
"He looks very good for a horse in the middle of winter and if worse comes to worse we can come back here again next year."
Mertens key with Hell Hound
Beau Mertens has become an integral component of the Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr stable and was rewarded for his work with victory on Hell Hound.
Price had been lacking confidence in the filly, but Mertens gave Hell Hound a perfect ride in the Royal Meeting Is All Class Handicap (1400m) to take the honours.
The co-trainer had developed the opinion Hell Hound was not savaging the line and doubted whether the filly was a strong 1400m contender.
But Ben Melham expressed to Price after Hell Hound's most recent start that ridden conservatively, she would have no problem running the trip.
Enter Mertens who produced the good.
"Beau has become part of the stable," Price said.
"He was there at 4.30am this morning, riding grass gallops at five and rode eight or ten.
"He's very polite, a good little judge and is part of the team."
Pocket rocket lands the prize
Cute As might be pushing 15 hands but she remains undefeated after taking out the Senet Gambling Law Experts Handicap (1100m).
A debut winner at Seymour in April, Cute As come to town with her trainer Shane Fliedner expecting the filly to run well.
Bendigo based Fliedner leases Cute As from her breeder Mario Cesnik who runs a stud in the local area with the trainer racing a lot of his stock.
"She was a little small to go to the sales, but she's a tough filly and everything I've done with her, she does everything right," Fliedner said.
"She did hurt herself six weeks ago when I wanted to give her 10 days in the paddock. She tried to jump the fence, but she wasn't high enough.
"We fixed that, she had a couple of soft trials and last time we couldn't hold her slow enough against a horse that has been Listed placed.
"I was pretty keen today, but it's hard to tell the owners that you are keen when they put up $30."
Va Via takes positive steps
Va Via may not have been visually as strong with her win in the Stow Storage Solutions Handicap (1200m), but jockey Blake Shinn considered it more impressive than her victory four weeks earlier.
Va Via scored a 5-¼ length win in three-year-old filly's company at Caulfield on June 24, but was tackling open three-year-old grade on Saturday.
"I thought that was a really good win today in contrast to last time where we just sat out the back and saved her energy and she exploded," Shinn said.
"It's pretty easy for a horse to do that and look good.
"Today's she's gone up against the males and we rode her more forward. She had to do that work to get into that position, but she was there for me.
"The second horse gave a good kick, but I liked the way she was still strong to the line.
"She's made some big steps in her last two and is a horse going places."
Quote of the day
"He's a clever horse. He knows when it's VOBIS Day or not and he picks the right day". - trainer Archie Alexander after Teewaters won his second successive VOBIS Gold Stayers at Caulfield.
