Supido has had just three horses to race from his first crop with Stupendo, his second dearest as a yearling, purchased by trainer Danny O'Brien for $120,000 from this year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale. Stupendo is the half-brother of retired stablemate Absolute Flirt, winner of the Listed Queen Adelaide Stakes (1050m) in May 2019.
Craig Williams rode Stupendo at his debut appearance, racing outside the leader Epic Centre and when his pacemaking companion capitulated at the 250-metre, Stupendo was left a length clear.
Godolphin's Kin stalked the pace throughout and when attempting to make her bid for victory was wedged between Stupendo and stablemate Va Via, only gaining room inside the final 100 metres to fall short by a neck.
O'Brien had two juveniles on debut in the event with Hellbent filly Hell Hath No Fury playing up in the mounting yard before John Allen switched her off at the rear of the field and delivered her late for fourth.
“I thought the filly (Hell Hath No Fury) would do everything right and he’s been a bit wayward but it’s been the other way around - he’s done everything right and she was a bit wayward," O'Brien said.
"But look, they’ve both run particularly well. He was there to get beat but he held on late. He’s probably got a lot of improvement, he’s still quite burly, two weeks ago we did not even contemplate he was going to end up at the races, so there’s plenty of fitness to come."
"He’d only had the one jumpout here against two other horses and we took him to Werribee (last Monday) and trialled really, really well and Craig Williams gave him a good report and he came through the week well."
Williams was complementary of Stupendo who delivered the champion jockey his 23rd win of the Melbourne season.
"When I first jumped him out I was really happy with the way he went," Williams said.
"He jumped out again on Monday, still doing a couple of things wrong but he gave me a really good feel and he had to bring that level of performance to the races which we saw.
"I could feel the improvement from his last jumpout and Monday as well," he added.
Supido was undefeated from his first four visits down the straight course. The son of Sebring ran 1:08.82 for 1200 metres at Flemington on Anzac Day in 2016 and a fortnight later over 1000 metres won in 56.84 seconds. Both victories were the quickest at Melbourne's premier racecourse for the 2015/16 season.
Supido finished fourth in the G1 Lightning Stakes (1000m) and fifth in the G1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) in the autumn of 2018, both times beaten under 1.5 lengths by another gifted straight-track performer Redkirk Warrior.
