David Hayes has a potential Victoria Derby candidate with Tips And Beers, but he is taking the next step with the De Beers gelding cautiously after he won the first at Caulfield on Wednesday.
Tips And Beers was settled back by apprentice Chad Schofield and he was content to bid his time until the field swung for the run home. Schofield then sent Tips And Beers to the outside and sustained a long run to the line with the win apparent a long way out from the post.
Tips And Beers had a 1L margin over Mantener La Fe with No Equivalent third, the margin 1L.
Hayes said after the race that while Tips And Beers was entered for the $1.5m, Group 1 AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m) at Flemington on November 2 he would monitor how he came through Wednesday's race.
Should Tips And Beers need more time he said that an alternative race might be the $100,000, Swisse Wellness Trophy (1800m) on Oaks Day, November 7.
Hayes commented that while most of the progeny of De Beers indicated that they were four and five-year-old Tips And Beers had shown that he was competitive in at three, and in the spring.
Wednesday's win was his third in succession after earlier wins at Kilmore and Morphettville.
