Leading Darwin trainer Stephen Brown's southern odyssey reaped its richest reward when quality speedster Canali landed the 65 Roses Victoria Cup (1100m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
The five-year-old bounced back from a luckless run at Moonee Valley to beat home favourite Catapulted by a long-neck in the $90,000 feature event.
Jockey Stephen Baster deserved plenty of credit for a gem of a ride from barrier three, allowing Canali to sit just off a strong tempo set by bolter Johnny Fiasco.
Canali found the front early in the home straight and staved off the challengers for the biggest triumph of his 18-start career, much to Brown's delight.
"He's probably our mainstay, Canali, he's a good little sprinter particularly at the 1000m-1100m," Brown said.
"He always runs good time and is always hard to beat." Canali now looks set to remain in Melbourne as Brown explores setting up a satellite stable at Flemington.
"He probably won't be going back to Darwin, he's one of some nice horses I've got and if I can sub-let six boxes down here that would be good," Brown said.
The international Group 1 winning trainer intends on staying in Victoria for at least the next two months and says the adventure is paying off.
"It's been successful after today. I can probably relax a little bit now," Brown said.
The $200,000 Group 3 Standish Handicap (1200m) at Flemington on January 2 looms as Canali's next assignment, with Brown prepared to give him a crack in the deep end.
"I don't know if he is up to it (at 1200m), but he finished off good today," Brown said.
Winning rider Baster felt as if he had settled a debt by winning a major Melbourne Saturday race for Brown.
"He is a champion guy and organised for me to come from Brisbane to Melbourne, so I owed him a winner," Baster said.
"It is a big thrill. He pointed me in the right direction, which helped, because I was only 15 at the time.
I hadn't touched a horse and had no idea back then."
Canali has now won more than $300,000 in prize money thanks to victories in Darwin, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
Brown's two other runners produced solid races with Below third at Cranbourne in a Rating 72 Handicap (1500m), while Bolton finished a game sixth in the last at Caulfield.
Story courtesy of Gregor Mactaggart, NT News
