Profiler and Ultimate Dreamer will both head to Sydney for the $400,000 Country Championship after running one-two in the series heat at Grafton.
Trained by Stephen Lee at Ballina, Profiler ($4.80) held out Ultimate Dreamer ($5) by a short neck on Sunday.
Lee was thrilled with the effort and particularly pleased to see how well the sometimes nervy Profiler settled in the race.
“It’s great to see him run the 1400 (metres) and to carry 59 (kg) to do it,” Lee told Sky Thoroughbred Central.
“The aim was to get him to settle.
“He has just done so well since his last win and when the horse he beat won yesterday, I knew we were right in this race.”
The five-year-old beat Liberation in a race at the Gold Coast on February 24 with the runner-up a winner at Doomben on Saturday.
Profiler is raced by June Baker who also has horses with Goulburn trainer Danny Williams who has a couple of candidates for the owner heading to the last chance heat at Muswellbrook, a week before the final at Randwick on April 2.
Brisbane-based Tegan Harrison returned to the Northern Rivers to ride Profiler.
“He settled a lot better than I was anticipating,” Harrison said.
“The gate had a lot to do with it.”
Profiler came out of gate three while the Jim Jarvis-trained Ultimate Dreamer jumped from 12.
“It was a bit unfortunate we drew wide and I think she wilted on her run,” trainer Jim Jarvis said.
“We had to do a bit more work.”
