Godolphin followers were cheering when the heavily backed Souchez raced to the front to take out the Listed $150,000 Hilton Stakes (1400m) at Flemington today.

The John O’Shea trained Souchez firmed in from $20 to start at $10 even though he was to jump from the second outside barrier in the capacity sixteen horse field.

Winning jockey James McDonald eased back from the wide gate and gave Souchez a quiet run near the tail of the field and when it looked like he had nowhere to go in the straight, the runs appeared and the Lonhro colt went on to score a long head win over the Nigel Blackiston trained Inside Agent ($10).

Damien Oliver’s mount Man From Uncle ($15), also from a wide gate, worked home okay to fill third spot.

The favourite Niccolance ($3.60) had a tough run three wide also coming off a wide gate and faded in the straight to beat one runner home in fifteenth position.

The lightly raced Souchez is virtually back from the dead after recovering from a severe case of colic during the Brisbane Winter Carnival and O’Shea is keen to head back to Queensland next year after a  possible trip to Perth.

The Group 2 $400,000 W.A. Guineas (1600m) at Ascot in Perth on November 19 is in O’Shea’s sights as is the Group 1 $1.5m Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm in June.

“We nearly lost him Brisbane during the Winter and a great effort by the team to get him back,” O’Shea said.

“He got very ill at the races and spent about a fortnight in hospital and they saved him. It was sort of like a colic post-race.”

“We have him in at Perth, in the Guineas. Whether we go or not, we will just wait and see how he pulls up.”

“I think he will be a back end Autumn horse in Sydney and then he might find his way into a Stradbroke.”

Hilton Stakes Results

Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Starting Price
1	1	SOUCHEZ	John O’Shea	James McDonald	–	15	60kg	$10
2	6	INSIDE AGENT (NZ)	Nigel Blackiston	Hugh Bowman	0.2L	1	55kg (cd 55.5kg)	$10
3	12	MAN FROM UNCLE	Anthony Cummings	Damien Oliver	0.4L	13	54kg (cd 54.5kg)	$15
4	7	SWORD OF LIGHT	Mathew Ellerton & Simon Zahra	Stephen Baster	3.15L	9	54.5kg	$31
5	3	BENZ	Gordon Richards	Dwayne Dunn	3.25L	16	58.5kg	$17
6	14	ENIGMAN	Ciaron Maher	Luke Nolen	3.35L	8	54kg	$21
7	10	DAM READY	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Regan Bayliss (a)	3.75L	4	54kg	$26
8	8	CRAFTED	John Hyam	Kerrin McEvoy	4.5L	3	54kg	$21
9	11	MAGNAROCK	Brian Gentle	Dean Yendall	5L	14	54kg	$101
10	16	PALLADIAN	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Brenton Avdulla	5.5L	2	54kg	$21
11	9	VERSTAPPEN	Danny O’Brien	Craig Williams	6.5L	10	54kg	$9.50
12	13	SIMPLY INVINCIBLE	Peter Morgan & Craig Widdison	Glyn Schofield	6.6L	5	54kg	$101
13	5	VALLIANO	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Damian Lane	6.7L	12	55.5kg	$14
14	2	TESSERA	John O’Shea	William Buick	7.95L	6	59kg	$12
15	4	NICCOLANCE	Peter & Paul Snowden	Blake Shinn	8.35L	11	57kg	$3.60F
16	15	GRATWICK	Darren Weir	Chad Schofield	11.1L	7	54kg (cd 54.5kg)	$16