And in another brilliant result for Victoria's booked out sire Rubitano, the Brian Mayfield-Smith trained gelding led home a quinella for the popular sire and former Australian Racehorse of the Year.

After being eyeballed by Sports in the early stages the star gelding soon found his way alone in the lead and after a spirited attempt from some rivals he quickened at the top of the straight to set up a winning break.

Mayfield-Smith sent a warning to rivals saying after the race that Rubitano was still not at his peak.

"There's really no use having him up at his peak now," Mayfield-Smith said. "He's just getting through these races now on class."

The premiership winning trainer also said the gelding would be much better suited on a firmer track as compared to today's dead rating.

"He was definitely not all that comfortable out there today. He's not a wet tracker and I wouldn't really be keen on running him on badly affected tracks against harder opposition," Mayfield-Smith added.

Nash Rawiller was full of praise for the winner, declaring him the best horse he has ever ridden.

"I've ridden some good horses in recent years, many of which were sprinters, but I've got a huge opinion of this fellow," Rawiller said.

"He was very impressive as he didn't handle the conditions at all well. He wanted to switch off before the 300 metres and then dipped on straightening."

Robbie Laing, the trainer of the runner-up Ruby Slipper, was again pleased with the effort of his stable representative.

"She's run really well again, but sadly not quick enough," he quipped. "But I think he's (Rubitano) is a pretty smart one."

The gelding's breeder and part owner Des Pope and his merry band of co-owners were naturally delighted with the result.

"It was a really great win," Pope said.

"The last couple of Saturday's have been terrific, I couldn't be happier."

Pope and Mayfield-Smith teamed up to win last Saturday's Group Three Dermody Stakes at Cheltenham in Adelaide with the star juvenile Innovation Girl.

Both Innovation Girl and Rubitano are both by Rubiton, while another exciting youngster owned by Pope also connected to the Blue Gum Farm based stallion is being set for another stakes race appearance next weekend.

"Great Glen (who is out of a Rubiton mare) is resuming in Adelaide next weekend, so it's a pretty exciting time," Pope added.

Trained by Leon Macdonald, Great Glen is unbeaten in two runs including a fighting win over Yell in the Group Two Breeders' Stakes earlier this year at Morphettville.

PICS - Quentin Lang.

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