The four-year-old Snitzel gelding entered the race as favourite after being placed in six of his first seven starts and did not disappoint his followers with an impressive performance.

His win gave jockey Daniel Stackhouse, who will ride the Bendigo-trained Kiata later in the day in race six, an early confidence boost.

Ben and JD Hayes stable representative Dom Rhoden said the win was 'fully-deserved'.

"He's been in great form all of his career and hardly run a bad race. It is great to get the win away today," he said.

"There were a few nervous moments there but he fought on well with the blinkers back on and it was a good win.

"I think he'll get up to a mile, no worries, and I think there's plenty of wins in store.

"His coat is not quite there but this will bring him on and he'll be cherry ripe third-up."

Stackhouse was rapt to see Schuhbeck validate his early-career form.

"I said to Dom before I went out that I'll just be positive and give him a nice tempo second run this preparation," he said.

"He had the best form on the board and we thought we'd just be positive and use that.

"He still had a good think about things and at least for the connections he's got the win now."

The connections of Designer Dreamer should not have to wait long for their colt to break through after the Matthew Brown-trained three-year-old flashed home for second.

Of the Bendigo hopes, the well-backed The Honourable One for Shane Fliedner finished fifth, while the Josh Julius-trained first-starter Up All Night was eighth in the field of nine.

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