That Hayes, who has had more than 20 two-year-old winners this campaign, won the event was not a surprise.

The shock was that it was the debutant Ploverset, the longest priced of his two runners, who took the honours ahead of the raging hot favourite Madeenatay.

The daughter of American stallion Street Boss drifted in the market from an opening quote of $13 to $21, while Madeenaty firmed from $1.70 into $1.45, suggesting that the latter was home and hosed and not much was expected from the former.

But Corey Parish, who doesn't ride too many metropolitan winners but does do a lot of preparatory work with the youngsters at Hayes' Euroa operation, conjured a terrific late run from Ploverset in the final stages of of the 1000 metre sprint and swooped late to nail her stablemate on the line, with the Peter Morgan-trained Sam's Image ($12) a half head away third.

This will likely prove a strong form reference as Madeenaty had got some runs on the board already this season, having won twice (including the first two-year-old race of the season, the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes over course and distance in October) and finished third behind Houtzen in the Magic Millions at the Gold Coast.

She had got stirred up in the preliminaries and Hayes was inclined to think that this might have cost her the race, but equally he was delighted with the effort of the winner.

"It was a huge effort at her first start down the straight to run down a good filly like Madeenaty. I think Madeenaty may have run her race a little bit before the start, she got very upset, she didn't get a lot of peace in front.

"We thought Ploverset was a very nice filly but she might just need the run and that it would set her up for the Group 3 race in a couple of weeks time. She obviously has some real ability and she will now be back here on the 18th [of March]."

He would not commit to a Golden Slipper run for Madeenaty.

"We will see how she comes through the race. We had her very fresh going into the race and it may have backfired. She was only beaten a neck, and Ploverset might be a very good filly."

Hayes made it a double on the day two hours later when the well backed He Or She ($4.60 into $3.90) showed plenty of resolution to provide some consolation to Madeenaty's rider, Mark Zahra, when he got up in the final strides to overhaul Hooked ($8) in the last stride of the TAB Rewards Stakes, a group three contest.

He Or She had mixed it in the best company last spring when he had taken on Winx and Black Heart Bart in a three-horse race at Caulfield.

He found this company more to his liking and was able to produce a first up win over 1400m despite carrying 57.5 kilos and conceding weight to all but top weight Kenjorwood.

He is likely to back up in the Blamey Stakes at Flemington in a fortnight and then head to Sydney, with the Doncaster a possible target for him..

Zahra was notching a double, having won the first race of the day on Robbie Laing's classy filly Missrock.