"I bought her on spec for [$350,000] and could not sell her until six weeks ago," trainer Gerald Ryan said after Perignon booked her ticket to Queensland's richest race at the second time of trying at Canterbury on Saturday. "I couldn't sell her – no one would buy her.

"The bloke who was going to buy it went to America ... and bought a boat instead."

Enter Ryan's long-time client Damion Flower, who will now have a two-year-old runner to complement Aerobar's assault on the Magic Millions Guineas for three-year-olds when Gold Coast's glitzy carnival springs to life in a fortnight.

"Damion saw her one morning and said, 'gee, she goes all right'," Ryan said.

He wasn't wrong. Now the pair have some unfinished business with another outstanding two-year-old progeny of Snitzel, for so long the staple of Ryan's stable.

And even despite a glowing resumé with the babies, the Magic Millions has been one race that has eluded Ryan. Danbird dead-heated for second in 2003 and super-sire Snitzel could do no better than third in 2005.

"What I like about this one is all the others were on-speed horses and this filly gets back," Ryan said. "I reckon that helps and even though a lot of people say you can't do that around the Gold Coast, there's always a lot of pressure on up front and if something runs on, she'll be strong.

"She would be strong at the end of 1400 [metres, let alone 1200m], so we'll just hold her together now."

Perignon's luckless fourth in the Wyong Magic Millions Classic – a useful lead-up to the $2 million Gold Coast scamper – proved a solid grounding for the filly after Brenton Avdulla brought her with a perfectly timed run to gun down Clarry Conners' Look To The Stars by a neck.

Another top trainer of two-year-olds, Gary Portelli, prepared third placegetter Racy, which toppled Looks To The Stars on debut in the wet at Warwick Farm.

But there was no stopping Perignon, which has firmed to $8 equal third favourite for the Magic Millions.

"She's been a bit rushed trying to qualify for the Magic Millions and only had one trial," Avdulla said. "I was confident after I worked her Tuesday with an older horse, she worked really well and beat her. We were pretty confident coming into today.

"I think the real classier two-year-olds – like we saw with Godolphin's last week in Ottoman and now her – when they're good they can come from anywhere and win. She'd be a filly that I could easily see measure up to in the better races in the autumn like the Sires' [Produce] and the Champagne [Stakes]."

On a first trip to the tricky Gold Coast track, Ryan said: "She had never seen Canterbury before. She had never seen Wyong before."

While Ryan will sit back and nurse Perignon towards the Magic Millions, Melbourne trainer Danny O'Brien must be ripping his hair out after Mr Humphries, needing a top-two finish to have a chance of qualifying, turfed jockey Blake Shinn in the pre-race parade and bolted down the chute towards the race-day stalls.

Mr Humphries was a late scratching and eventually caught in a grass area near the stalls, but not before semi-hurdling a fence at full speed.

"He just got a fright and dumped me," said Shinn, who was hoping to rekindle the partnership that landed him his first group 1 win, on Demerger in the Adelaide Cup.