Jamie Kah and Mark Zahra have battled it out down the length of the Randwick straight in the Group 3 Adrian Knox Stakes, with Kah getting the better of her Victorian counterpart as Good Banter (+340) edged out Autumn Angel (+400) in the final strides of the 2000m contest.
As the Adrian Knox Stakes is the key lead-up race to the Group 1 Australian Oaks, both the winner and runner-up appear as though they will be able to push onto one of the features next Saturday and run well again.
Zahra and Kah made their runs together as the field rounded the home turn and their mounts quickly ranged up to the leaders and started to kick clear from the rest of the field at the 200m mark to fight out the finish.
However, with Autumn Angel giving Good Banter 8kg in weight, the smaller filly was able to get her nose in front with 50m to go and held out the tough Peter Moody & Katherine Coleman-trained filly in a driving finish, with Concello (+1200) finishing off nicely to run home into third place.
John O'Shea was on track to speak about the win of Good Banter post-race.
“We were hoping to get a bit of juice in the ground and she got that today,” O'Shea said.
“I just thought the pull in the weights might have been enough to get her home.
“Peter's filly (Autumn Angel) was valiant – it was an amazing performance really considering the weight (61kg) – but when we were saddling up and Jamie's riding 53 with a big saddle, I thought that was a good sign.
“My preference wouldn't be to (back up in the Oaks), I think she's got a lot to offer going down the road.
“I think those other two good fillies (Orchestral and Zardozi) are just a bit too more seasoned than her at the moment, but it's an option we'll discuss with the owners.
“An option to run in a Group 1 over a mile-and-a-half with a filly that's had a good win shouldn't be neglected, but we'll just see how she pulls up and see what the owners want to do.
“If we just take out time we might end up in Queensland at a lesser, albeit it a Group 1, up there and I think the key for her was getting her toe in the ground today.
“We might even come back and run in a Frank Packer. But we'll discuss that with the owners and if they said they wanted to run, she's a filly in good form and we'd give her an opportunity.
Jamie Kah was surprised with the strength of the winner late.
“She was super, she really surprised me actually,” Kah said.
“We had a nice enough run, then when Autumn Angel kicked I thought, ‘we're going to run a nice second here'.
“Obviously the weight swing helped, but she was super and she was going away late as well.
“Up to him, he's the boss, but she pulled up with a real level head. If he wanted to push on, I'd push on; if not, he's the boss.”
Good Banter is an +1000 chance in the Australian Oaks futures markets with online bookmakers.