Father-and-and son training combination Mark and Levi Kavanagh could not have picked a better time to land their first winner together.
Seradess arrived late to land the Group 3 Scarborough Stakes (1200m) at The Valley on Friday night to give the pair their first win since joining forces at the start of the new season.
Under Luke Currie, Seradess ($6.50) scored by a half-head from Larkspur Run ($4.20) with Decent Raine ($21) a further length away third.
The Kavanagh’s had saddled up 20 runners prior to Friday night’s breakthrough victory.
“To get a stakes win first-up, it’s fantastic,” Levi Kavanagh said.
“It has been a bit frustrating over the last couple of weeks so The Valley on a Friday night, what more could be better?”
Seradess had won her first two starts, including the Listed Cinderella Stakes at Morphettville in March before a break and returned from that spell at Flemington, finishing an unlucky fifth on September 11.
“In the Cap D’Antibes, we didn’t draw the right gate and she got held up on the fence,” Kavanagh said.
“She didn’t get wound up, but she took improvement from that run.
“Her coat has really come through and she was ready to go today.
“We were a little bit worried that we might get trapped on the rail there, but to Luke’s credit he rode her perfectly and got off it at the right time.
“It was a bit of a nail biter there. I didn’t think we’d got it from where I was standing and thought we ran second again.”