James Cummings was at the forefront to start the Randwick meeting on Saturday – but he was far from the punters' pal.

Exceeds took down heavily supported odds-on favourite Eden Roc, leaving the colt's jockey Tommy Berry gutted, before Tactical Advantage made light of a betting drift from $4 to $7 to win the Wilkes Quality.

"Just a good start to the day with a couple of nice horses," Cummings said. "They both have futures and are getting better all the time. I have a few ideas where I would like to go with them but I'm keeping it to myself."

Cummings will weigh up his options with the three-year-old but Exceeds' path seems destined on the Golden Slipper after she showed the benefit of race experience to win the opener in the famous chess board and yellow sleeves of Dato Tan Chin Nam.

In the rush to make the Magic Millions, Cummings tried the blinkers on Exceeds on debut when fourth behind From Within and Chauffeur but there was no sign of the gear as she sat sixth and accelerated off the back of Eden Roc to win by three-quarters of a length, with Kristensen and leader Pandemonium deadheating for third

"She is just a lovely style of a filly and I really liked the way she went away in the last 100m," Cummings said. "There are [a] few options for her now."

Eden Roc, which is three-quarter brother to Star Turn, should be followed as Berry had to work overtime to get him to find top gear, which didn't happen until the race was over.

"I thought he was a good thing. I'm gutted. It took him 300m to work out [what] he had to do," Berry said. "He only got going in the last 50 metres. I wouldn't sack him, he is [a] bit like Star Turn, which took a bit of time to work it out."

Waterhouse was happy with the way Pandemonium stuck on after leading and will send her to Melbourne for the Blue Diamond series.

It has been a while since Chin Nam has been associated with winning a two-year-old race but that was what Exceeds was bought to do.

Chin Nam's bloodstock agent Duncan Ramage was given the brief at the Magic Millions last year to buy a speedy two-year-old type and $250,000 later the filly out of Exceedingly Happy was heading to Cummings' yard.

"We haven't gone out to buy a two-year-old for a long time. We can still do it," Ramage said. "The idea was to get a horse that could run in these sort of races early.

"The first horse I bought for Dato was Capablanca, which won three races before Christmas and ran in the Slipper. He hasn't had a runner in it since.

"He said to me we want to buy a two-year-old with some friends and this is the horse. We tried to get to the Magic Millions but the Slipper is there for her."

Ramage suggested that a Slipper trial against her own sex and the biggest two-year-old prize are on the agenda.

"She has raced the colts twice, so she is going to be well placed against the fillies and when you buy a horse like her and she wins a race early you are thinking about the Slipper," he said.

A race later Tactical Advantage showed the benefit of time and patience.

"He has had bone chips removed and we have had to wait for him," Gooree racing manager and Cummings' wife Monica said. "It is good to see him showing what he can do because he has always had talent."

Tactical Advantage sat on the speed and burst through late to run down leader Spending To Win and score by a half neck to make it three from three this preparation.

"He is still learning what to do, so there is more to come," jockey Glyn Schofield said.

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