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Chris Waller‘s stable representative Charlie Duckworth has said their up-and-coming three-year-old Estremo now has a “significant advantage” over his rivals heading into the Group 1 $3 million Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on October 11 following his narrow win in the Prelude on Saturday.

Only seven hopefuls went around in this year’s Group 3 $300,000 Caulfield Guineas Prelude (1400m) with top honours going to nicely bred Extreme Choice colt Estremo ($7) who posted his second win at his fifth career start.

Jockey Ben Melham timed his run to perfection with Estremo levelling up to the front-running Vega For Luck 100m out from the finish to go stride-for-stride in a late thriller only to nail the win right on the line with the beaten favourite Planet Red a further 1.3 lengths back in third.

“He came here early in the week to have a look around and Ben was really happy with that piece of work. I think that had him in good stead for today,” Duckworth told the media post-win.

“The extra distance was brilliant. I think Ben, having had that sit on him earlier in the week, just allowed him the confidence to ride him where he wanted to ride him.

“He obviously had to dig deep late, and he had to fight all the way to the line, but it was a great win.”

The Prelude victory came on the back of a lead-up fifth in the Listed McKenzie Stakes (1200m) at The Valley where he was beaten 2.3 lengths by Rosberg.

“I think it was just a case of The Valley getting him beaten his two previous occasions,” Duckworth said of his lead-up performances.

“We sort of ummed and ahhed whether we ran that second time around The Valley, because he was probably already looking for the 1400 metres, but we opted to run as he was well-fancied in the market and there were enough indications that he’d taken benefit from his first go around there.

“It didn’t pan out for us that day, but it has today.”

Estremo relished the extra furlong on Saturday in his first go around the Caulfield circuit and, having shown sharp improvement, now looks on track to step up to a mile for a shot at the 2025 Caulfield Guineas next month.

“Obviously we’ve got a quartet heading towards a Golden Rose next weekend and some of them would be likely to then come down to the Caulfield Guineas,” Duckworth said.

“He’ll have the advantage of winning around here, they won’t.

“It’s always hard to exactly measure up, because course specialists are a big thing and it does take into account a significant advantage, having that experience.”

The last horse to complete the Caulfield Guineas Prelude – Caulfield Guineas double was Helmet (2011).

Futures Caulfield Guineas betting on the Prelude winner at Ladbrokes.com.au has Estremo in from $101 to $26 to hand Waller his fourth win in the event and back-to-back victories after the success of Private Life last spring.