The first emergency Cause For Concern took his place in Saturday’s Group II The Damien Oliver (1400m) at Flemington, following the scratching of Zoutori, and he made the most of it.
Making it a double on the day for Jamie Kah, the Shawn Mathrick-trained son of Worthy Cause launched late to defeat the Casino Prince gelding Bandersnatch by a neck with the Dark Angel gelding Munhamek (GB) the same distance back in third.
With his stakes breakthrough, Cause For Concern advances his record to five wins, a second and two thirds from 13 starts, with earnings of $592,240.
“If I read one more time ‘oh this horse has been up for a long time’, I’ll go off the West Gate, I tell ya,” Mathrick said.
“This horse is flying. Last start he got pushed off the track. The start before Benny probably pushed the button too early and he got flattened.
“I’ve had big wraps on this horse since we’ve had him, and today he was the real deal.
“I said to Jamie, if you jump and you’re midfield, don’t panic. You can give weight, don’t give ground so she said she’ll get a beautiful run from there.
“I thought we were going to be a bad luck story in the straight, but God, she’s a brilliant rider.
“I couldn’t care about me, it’s the horse. I love the animal. We’ve been raving about him for a long time and I reckon we’ve copped flack for it.”
A hombred for the Lidstone and Grace families, Cause For Concern is the only named foal of the Fastnet Rock mare Rock Paper Scissors.
A 4-time winner, Rock Paper Scissors is a daughter of the Spinning World (USA) mare Axis, a half-sister to Group II MRC Winning Edge Presentations Stakes and Group III Hobart Cup winner Growl and dual Listed winner Leeu.
Cause For Concern is the second stakes winner for Clear Mountain Fairview stallion Worthy Cause, whose cause has been championed by the Group 1 Surround Stakes heroine Hinged.
A Group III winning son of Choisir, Worthy Cause stands for $5,500 and covered a career high 62 mares last spring.
