The three-year-old gelding was edged out by favourite Huzzah, the Godolphin runner winning by a short half head in the 1000 metres contest.

The two horses pulled away from their rivals down the straight as Brock Ryan and Rachel King willed their runners to the line.

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In the end it was King who put Huzzah's head in front at the winning post and Godolphin stable representative Darren Beadman said it was a promising start to the filly's career.

"It all worked out nicely from the start," Beadman said. "They didn't go that hard and she was able to lob into a nice position.

"She just wanted to overdo it her last couple of trials, but she's taken a lot out of her trials.

"It was a nice debut, she had every chance to shirk her task but she kept her head down and got the bob in."

The second-place finish extends a frustrating run for Robert and Luke Price as they seek a first career victory for Verbek.

The gelding was first-past-the-post in a Hawkesbury maiden before a protest saw him demoted to second while he was also the runner up in the Listed Phoenix at Eagle Farm.

While it was just the first race of his spring and well short of his best distance, the co-trainers had hoped to see Verbek break through.

Now a trip to a mid-week city maiden looms, with Luke hopeful of earning a start in the new $700,000 Four Pillars race for Midway trainers.

"He'll only improve out of sight off this," Price said. "We'll find the right race for him and hopefully he'll be in the winners circle.

"We'll probably change the gear, he's still immature and has a long way to go, but he has good ability, we just have to get it out of him.

"He's the perfect horse for the Four Pillars, a BenchMark 68 1500m race around Rosehill. It's the same with Kobestar, he was great today, he's ideal for a race under those conditions."

A new stable addition, Kobestar finished second in a 1000m BenchMark 64 behind favourite Delexo.

Later in the day, Matthew Dunn's Head Legislator finally broke through for his first victory.

The gelding had run second in his past five starts but jockey Nash Rawiller ensured the result was never in doubt.

With the maiden out of the way, stable representative Keira Dunn said they will progress the four-year-old through the grades.

"He hasn't been overly taxed, we've made sure we've spaced his runs and looked after him," Dunn said.

"I'm sure now Matthew will work him up through his grades."

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