Having waited four starts for the talented Danawi to break his maiden, trainer Tim Martin had his celebrations delayed twice, firstly by a lengthy decision on the photo-finish before a protest hearing.
All’s well that ends well, with three-time runner-up Danawi now the winner of Saturday’s Group Three Ming Dynasty Quality (1400m) at Rosehill over surprise-packet Mizzy.
Sent out the $5 equal favourite, Danawi looked to have a winning break for James Innes jr before the Anthony Cummings-trained Mizzy ($51) came at him late with a nose margin eventually declared.
Andrew Adkins, who thought he had won the race on Mizzy, lodged a protest, saying he had been taken out from the 400m as Danawi moved out to better ground.
The protest was dismissed to the relief of Martin who trained his sire Exceed And Excel to two Group One sprint wins.
A $400,000 yearling, Danawi is out of Secret Admirer, a dual Group One winner over 1600m.
“He’s a promising horse and he can go on with it, I hope, from here,” he said.
“I was confident until the last couple of strides.
“We’ll look at running him in the Stan Fox and then the Golden Rose and the Caulfield Guineas, races like that.”
Innes jr admitted he may have celebrated the win prematurely.
“I was confident I got it, but looking at the replay I may have gone off too early,” he said.
“The horse is still learning his trade and gee I was happy to see my number pop up.”
Cummings said he was uncertain of the next step for Mizzy.
“The plan was to win today then go to the Golden Rose and the Flight Stakes,” he said.
“That might still be the plan.”
Mizzy now has a similar record to Danawi’s before his win with the filly racking up her fourth second from five starts.
Want more racing news? Cups Betting delivers you the latest horse racing news from all the major thoroughbred cups and feature races.