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Trainer and jockey quotes after Griff takes out the Listed Exford Plate at Flemington on Saturday.

Race Result:

1st: Griff (Maher & Eustace/M Zahra) - $10
2nd: Surprise Coming (K Schulz/D Moor) - $61
3rd: King Of Fighters (Price & Kent Jnr/D Oliver) - $31

Winning Time: 1:23.62 Last 600m: N/A

Margins: 1/2 length x Short Head

Griff charges down the middle to take out the Exford Plate @cmaherracing pic.twitter.com/GVq3RpaV3r

— Racing.com (@Racing) September 16, 2023

Winning Trainer: Ciaron Maher & David Eustace (Eustace speaking)

Coming to Melbourne: "He's been used to being prepared up in Sydney for a couple of runs this preparation, Ciaron's always been very sweet on his ability. His first up run was excellent, second up run he had to sort of ride a pretty hot speed so we were really confident coming in to today, thought he was going to get a lovely run, just needed a little bit of luck and a good ride and he got a great ride from Mark (Zahra) and really, really pleased for Shaun Griffiths as well, he's put a lot of money in a short space of time into the game and he's getting some nice results."

Guineas bound: "I'll have a chat to Mark but he was certainly strong through the line there, he relaxes well, five weeks to the Guineas, almost certainly going there.

"I think he'll probably just have a trial in between, he's not necessarily a sort of good doing colt, I don't think he'll need a run so I suspect he'll just have a trial."

Winning Jockey: Mark Zahra

Possible Guineas contender: "Yeah, for sure. I watched his replays and thought he was going okay, wasn't sure about 1400 but Dave and Ciaron gave me a really good push for him, they were really confident he'd run well so I took that on board, had a nice sweet run. He's just a big colt, I just wanted to get out and give him a bit of room which I was able to do and chicken, he was pretty soft in the end."

Drawing barrier one: "It wasn't too bad because they went so quick, I just had to get around La Zebra and then sort of wait for Legacies and wait to go, so it was good to wait and then pick them up, it was a good effort."