Learn and race he did, the $14 chance flying home in the final 200 metres at Menangle to place second and book a spot in the 1609 metres, Group 1 decider for the The Lagoon trainer-driver.

"He's got to do everything right, he can be a bit of a handful, but he was very well behaved so that was good," Turnbull said.

"I sort of expected it, if he does everything right that's what he shows, like he's shown that he can do it."

While hot $1.45 favourite Captain Crusader was an ultra impressive winner, clocking a 1:50.5 winning mile rate, the run of Lyrical Genius had plenty of merit.

As the favourite peeled off a scorching 25.8 seconds first quarter to take control, Turnbull took Lyrical Genius back from barrier three before finding a spot one out and three back.

He was seventh on the bell and fifth with 200m to go, but he then showed a rapid acceleration to lead home the chasing pack.

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While Lyrical Genius is rated a $61 outsider for the final after drawing barrier 10, Turnbull still feels he could sneak a placing from there if luck is on his side.

"With him it's probably not too bad because he'll have to go back anyway, so he's just got to go back and hope that they go hard or that he has a bit of luck," she said.

Lyrical Genius was not the only member of Turnbull's team to qualify for a $150,000 NSW Breeders Challenge Final, Miss Lemon running fifth in her fillies semi-final as a $126 outsider to advance.

She has drawn barrier nine for the decider and was also at $61.

"With her it's just try to get to the fence and roll up and hopefully she can sneak into some prize money at the end," Turnbull said.

Though Turnbull's finalists are not seen as winning prospects given the quality of the fields, she has sprung surprises in this series in the past.

In the two-year-old colts and geldings semi-finals in 2017, Turnbull produced a huge boilover when steering the Chris Frisby trained $126 long shot Captain Cosmonaut to victory.

Turnbull has previously won two NSW Breeders Challenge finals as well, driving Conviction to glory in the 2016 two-year-old colts and geldings decider for her father-trainer Steve Turnbull and a year later claiming victory in the four-year-old mares series with Eye See Diamonds.

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