AFTER a comparatively slow start to the season, Willie McCreery’s team have hit their stride over the last couple of months and the trainer struck here with two promising fillies, with his double featuring a precious pattern-race success for Epona Plays in the Group 3 Denny Cordell Lavarack/Lanwades Stud Fillies Stakes.

This Australia three-year-old has looked a potential stakes performer from the moment she made her debut at this fixture last year and she has really stepped forward lately.