CHRIS Waller, James Cummings, Kris Lees, Joseph Pride - they are all multiple Group winning trainers but on Friday at Kensington their runners were upstaged by a member of Dean Mirfin's Bathurst stable.
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Mirfin's five-year-old Worldly Pleasure marked her return from a 16-week spell by upstaging her more fancied rivals and winning the 1,100 metres handicap as an $18 chance.
While the Commands x Smoothie mare had won first up on two prior occasions and is a proven performer over the distance, Mirfin admits he was a little surprised to see Worldly Pleasure notch up the seventh win of her career.
"She's been going really well, so we took her to a bigger race as such and it was a good day," he said.
"We put a lot of work into her and we knew she was ready to race well, but I knew also whatever she did she'd improve on and so I wasn't really expecting her to win. I thought she'd run well and maybe run a place for us - the win was great, we were very happy with it."
It was Cummings' Rebukes that held $3.20 favouritism for the race, while Lees' Bubbles Ball ($4), Unguarded ($4.80) from the stable of the Freedman brothers, Pride's Eveleigh ($5) and Waller's Voila ($7.50) were also tipped to challenge for the win.
But with apprentice Ceejay Graham in the saddle, Worldly Pleasure pulled off an upset.
From barrier seven she won the start and led the field down the back straight, but her rivals soon pressured.
With 400m to go Bubbles Ball had Mirfin's mare under serious pressure and they went neck-and-neck down the home straight. However, with 150m to go Worldly Pleasure kicked to get home by a half length.
Third belonged to Voila, while Ave ($41) the other Bathurst chance in the race, placed ninth for Don and Andrew Ryan as she had her first race start in over a year.
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Mirfin said the run confirmed in his mind that Worldly Pleasure is good enough to continue to feature on metropolitan tracks against strong company.
The mare, who had been trained by Cummings then Mark Newnham before she commenced her racing career for Mirfin, now boasts more than $110,000 in prize money.
"I mean you are always going to run into those kind of horses when you go to Sydney, so you've got to have a horse which is competitive enough to do it and she's always shown us that she is," he said.
"She's a high quality mare, she'll be very valuable when she finishes racing as a broodmare and she's doing a good job for her owners.
"She's ineligible for the Highway [Handicap] races now because she's won too many, so we are kind of forced to run her in these races now because her benchmark has become very high. So horses like her need to be adaptable and go down and do what's she done.
"She'll get limited opportunities from here on running on country tracks, but she has still got the form to be able to run well in Sydney.
"She's always shown us ability and we're not surprised by her reaching this level. Right from the word go she's had plenty of ability and she's gotten bigger and stronger as she's got older.
"She's racing better now than she was a year or so ago, so we're not surprised by it and we're just enjoying the ride with her."
Friday's win continued a good run of success for Mirfin's stables - in the seven starts his team has had over the past month the trainer has enjoyed a winning double at Bathurst plus the Kensington victory, a third at Rosehill with a rank $101 outsider, as well a second placings at Orange and Tyers Park.
With the news that some of his more consistently strong performers are poised to make their return from the spelling paddock, Mirfin hopes that trend will continue. Following Friday's victory, his career tally of training wins stands at 92.
"The better ones ion the stable are all about to race, Press Box and Electrified and Jetgirl. They're all very well performed horses that have all been being prepared to race in the next couple of weeks," he said
"The stable is in a good condition at the moment and hopefully we can win some more races. That's what we do the work for, hopefully that will happen, they're all looking good so I'm expecting some nice results."
