Displaying his usual fighting qualities the son of Serheed hit the front at the top of the famous Flemington straight and then was able to hold out the determined challenge of the Rick Hore-Lacy trained Dash for Cash to win the time honoured Group Two event by a half neck.

Winning trainer Fred Kersley was telling the same story after his gelding scored his third consecutive win this afternoon.

"He is just able to find enough to win," Kersley said. "He’s something pretty special."

Kersley suggested the Caulfield Cup will be Northerly’s next run and a run in the Cox Plate after that was yet to be decided.

"We will just take one race at a time for now," he said.

After jumping out of the gates in good style Northerly settled just behind the leader Leica Guv in the early stages and worked up to the girth of that horse at the 1000 metre mark. Shortly after straightening the gelding poked his nose in front and from that point he was never headed.

Rick Hore-Lacy, the trainer of the runner-up Dash for Cash, was delighted with the effort of his grey galloper.

"Couldn’t have been any happier with the run," he reported. "We were beaten by a champion."

"He (Dash for Cash) is going to go onto the Caulfield Cup and at that track he will be able to position himself in a good position."

"The 100/1 I got each way on him for the race (Caulfield Cup) is looking good now," he said with a wry smile.

Tony McEvoy the trainer of the third placegetter Fields of Omagh was thrilled with the performance of his gelding, who got back after an eventful start.

"He slipped as he came of the gates and got back much further than we had originally planned," McEvoy said. "It was a super run."

On a sad note the Cup dreams of Roger James were thwarted when his Group One winning mare Sixty Seconds finished last of the fifteen and was then subsequently found to have bled. She has incurred the usual three month ban.

Her trainer Roger James indicated connections had decided to retire the mare and she will be sent to be mated in Europe for next year.

PICS - Quentin Lang.

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