Group one placed at two, Wayne Sullivan's mare finished fifth behind We Salute You despite drawing barrier one in her heat last week.

However the Leeton trainer believes she was much better suited this time around after storming down the outside to take a thrilling finish.

"She has been lame half the time this prep and she doesn't race well up front," Sullivan said.

"In all her grades she has either lead or nothing has got her into the race

"She raced them all the way to the line (this time) and that is how she likes to race - she is a good chaser but no good up front."

Sullivan drove the mare last week but after being hospitalised with a bout of food poisoning elected to have Blake Jones behinds the reins.

It was a move that paid off as Jones timed his run perfectly to down $1.55 favourite Time Keepa Lombo by a half head, clocking a mile rate of 1:57.3.

Sullivan was more than happy to hand over the driving responsibilities.

"I only just started coming good (on Thursday) and I would like to use Blake more often but he's got plenty of drives and plenty of horses of their own," he said.

"I'm getting too old."

Sullivan expects to be back behind the reins for the $100,000 final with Jones committed to Western Sonador.

It was the mare's first win since taking out the group two NSW Breeders Challenge Blue for three-year-old fillies in July.

She had been placed in four of her seven runs this preparation but hasn't been able to finish off her races.

Sullivan gave the mare more work during the week and thought the extra fitness helped.

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"I tightened her up giving her a fair bit of work during the week," he said.

"She has been getting too fat as she is one of those horses who takes a lot of work and really takes a long time to go to hand when things go wrong and things have been going wrong with her for months.

"She is just getting there at the right time."