Saturday’s 1200m race was robbed of long time favourite Buffering who was scratched in the morning with a stone bruise.

But that did not take any of the gloss from the win of Sea Siren who is trained by John O’Shea and raced by prominent owner-breeder Keith Biggs.

Sea Siren held off a gallant Scenic Blast by 1-1/4 lengths to win the feature with Beaded showing a glimpse of her previous form for third, a nose behind the runner-up.

O’Shea said Sea Siren would now head to the Doomben 10,000 and the Stradbroke Handicap in an attempt on the Brisbane sprint triple crown.

Trainer Rob Heathcote had been hopeful the multiple Group One placegetter would come right overnight but a veterinary examination on Saturday morning ruled him out.

Heathcote will now rely on Buffering’s Oakleigh Plate winning stablemate Woorim to give him a hometown victory in the first Group One race of the Queensland winter carnival.

The trainer said he expected Buffering to be 100 per cent within four or five days and ready to continue his campaign.

The champion galloper was euthanased on Wednesday night, aged 15, after failing to recover from a severe colic attack.

His death came in the same week the sport lost another great in dashing frontrunner Vo Rogue.

Like Vo Rogue, Northerly rose to greatness from humble beginnings and captured the heart of a nation.

Pulled from his dam at birth, motionless and cold, Northerly’s story was almost over before it began.

He only came to life after his owner Neville Duncan massaged his heart and it was that same heart for which Northerly became renowned.

Greg Childs, who had an unblemished record aboard the star, said he possessed all the qualities of a champion.

“It’s like all good horses, their tenacity, their aggression, their will to win. Northerly was exactly like that,” Childs said on Sydney’s Sky Sports Radio on Thursday.

“He never travelled like a winner during the run but it was when the chips were down when he would lift and he did that on many occasions.”

Trained by revered horseman Fred Kersley, Northerly began his career at Ascot in Perth in the autumn of 2000 and landed the first of his nine Group One wins in the Railway Stakes later that year.

Claiming his first Australian Cup at Flemington in 2001, Northerly became a regular in Melbourne during carnival time.

He overhauled another champion in Sunline to win the 2001 Cox Plate and returned the following year to defend his title.

Damien Oliver was aboard for the first Cox Plate victory with Childs riding Sunline and Childs said it was testament to the gelding’s courage that he won.

“I kicked clear on the turn, Damien was under the bat on Northerly and going nowhere but he got up and beat me right on the line,” Childs said.

“If you watch the replay you would never have thought he’d win that Cox Plate but that’s how courageous and tough he was.

“He never travelled like a winner but always was the last man standing at the end.”

In between his Cox Plate victories, Northerly showed he wasn’t just a weight-for-age star when he shouldered 58kg to a memorable Caulfield Cup win.

Sydney never saw the best of him.

Northerly suffered shock defeats at his only three starts there in the autumn of 2003, including his narrow second to Freemason in The BMW after the pair staged a stirring duel up the Rosehill straight.

It was one of the few close fights Northerly didn’t win.

“Northerly was a good old-fashioned champion,” Kersley said in the book on Northerly’s life.

“He did it tough and never quit.

“For me there will never be another Northerly. He stands alone.”

All up Northerly raced 37 times for 19 wins before his career was ended by a tendon injury.

He was the 2003 Horse Of The Year and is a member of racing’s Hall Of Fame.

Childs said he felt privileged to have played a part in the champion’s story.

“I’m just thankful I was part of Northerly’s great career,” Childs said.

“The Australian Cup, the Caulfield Cup. Six rides for six wins.

“It was special.”

The sprinter faces eight rivals in the Group One Goodwood at Morphettville and has drawn barrier eight for the $500,000 race.

It will be her final Australian appearance before she heads to England for the Group One Diamond Jubilee at Royal Ascot.

Morphettville, in Adelaide’s western suburbs, is in the City of Marion and Mayor Felicity-ann Lewis said Black Caviar’s trainer Peter Moody and her owners would be presented with the keys to the city if she wins.

“It’s an extraordinary feat and it’s a privilege for Marion to host this iconic sporting moment,” the mayor said.

A sell-out crowd of 30,000 is expected on Saturday. A similar crowd watched Black Caviar win the Sportingbet Classic at Morphettville last month, her 20th consecutive win.

The dashing frontrunner was a darling of the turf through the late 1980s and early 1990s when he won 26 of his 83 starts and was placed on another 23 occasions for earnings of more than $3.1 million.

From his modest beginnings at the Gold Coast where he was well beaten in a two-year-old maiden on debut, Vo Rogue rose to racing’s greatest heights winning seven Group Ones.

While best known over middle distances, he proved his versatility winning the 1988 William Reid Stakes over 1200m.

His feats propelled trainer Vic Rail into the national spotlight before Rail’s death in 1994 from the Hendra virus.

Vo Rogue also thrust regular rider Cyril Small to national prominence.

Small, who partnered Vo Rogue in 68 of his runs, remembered him fondly and said his fighting spirit was evident to the end.

“He certainly had a special life,” Small told Sydney’s Sky Sports Radio on Wednesday.

“He made racing a special thing for a lot of people.

“A lot of horses don’t make it past 20 but he was a fighter through and through.”

Small said his association with Vo Rogue was primarily the result of an established relationship with his owner Jeff Perry.

He won a couple of races aboard the star’s older half-brother Rode Rogue whose owners got such a thrill they bought his younger sibling sight unseen.

Small said Vo Rogue always showed talent but in the early days his hopes for the gelding were modest.

“I thought he was a little bit above average,” Small said.

“I thought he would race in novice class in Brisbane but I never at that stage thought he would make it to the heights that he finally reached.

“He was a super horse with a big heart and a will to win and he just kept improving.”

Vo Rogue was a Queenslander but his best form was in Melbourne.

One of Vo Rogue’s best campaigns was in the autumn of 1988 when he won five of his six starts with his only loss a second to Dandy Andy in the Australian Cup.

Small felt that defeat was one of his most courageous runs.

“Jeff (Perry) picked me up at the airport and said, `I don’t think this horse is any hope of winning today’,” Small said.

“He’d gone 2000 (metres) back to 1400 and back to 2000. It was a huge effort – he just wasn’t himself.”

But Small rated Vo Rogue’s 1990 Australian Cup victory over Better Loosen Up and Super Impose as his crowning moment.

“Probably his second Australian Cup when everyone thought he was gone, when he beat Better Loosen Up,” Small said.

The six-year-old was trained by Leon Corstens two win the 2009 Caulfield Guineas and 2010 Oakleigh Plate.

He was sold to Coolmore Stud and produced his best in the northern hemisphere after joining Aidan O’Brien, winning the Golden Jubilee Stakes and the July Cup in 2010.

He was retired at the end of that season to join the Coolmore Stud roster and his first crop of foals hit the ground this year.

However, it appears his racing days may now not be over with Coolmore announcing via Twitter that the stallion may go back into work.

“Due to ongoing fertility issues which have not improved as much as hoped, it was decided not to shuttle Starspangledbanner this year,” Coolmore said.

“A decision on his future will be made later this month but it is possible that he may go back into training at Ballydoyle.”

O’Brien described Starspangledbanner as the fastest horse he had ever had in training.

Starspangledbanner is a son of Choisir who was purchased by Coolmore after Paul Perry trained him to win the 2003 King’s Stand and Golden Jubilee Stakes.

His death at 27 came a fortnight after he was retired from stud duty when he suffered an aortic valve rupture.

In a stud career which produced 21 crops of foals, Dynaformer also sired the ill-fated Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro among 25 Group One winners.

His progeny have won $US105 million, placing him in the top 0.5 per cent of all sires by average earnings per starter.

“Dynaformer impacted the (thoroughbred) industry in a way few ever have or will,” Three Chimneys president Case Clay said.

“More than that, though, he was an awe-inspiring horse to be around.

“He commanded respect and his toughness was undeniable to the very end.”

Dynaformer’s health took a turn for the worse at the weekend.

“A normal horse would not have survived his initial cardiac episode,” the stud’s veterinarian Jim Morehead said.

“He did everything on his own terms, including deciding when he’d had enough.”

Americain, who is now trained in Australia after winning the Melbourne Cup for French trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre, is destined to stand at stud.

The handsome stallion was unplaced in Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick but trainer David Hayes said he would return for a spring campaign aimed at winning another Melbourne Cup.