Bendigo trainer Stanley and El Salto strike on Golden Mile day

The Brent Stanley-trained five-year-old emerged as the sole locally-trained winner on Saturday's nine-race program, on a day when only a few Bendigo trainers had runners.

And he did it in style, charging home along the inside of Sacred Palace to score a narrow win in the 1100m benchmark 84 handicap, in an exciting climax to the lone metropolitan meeting staged in Bendigo each year.

It was in some ways an unlikely victory and not just because of his $51 starting odds.

El Salto, ridden by Daniel Moor, was originally the third emergency in the field and was only guaranteed a run late on Friday.

Stanley was glad to see the Written Tycoon gelding make his way into contention, with El Salto allocated 54kg, after lumping 60kg in his last two runs at Bendigo and Morphettville.

"He's such a good horse. He ran in stakes races as a three-year-old and he had a trip away to Canberra with Celui as a travelling partner and we treated it as a trial," he said.

"He went to Adelaide with (Bendigo Guineas runner) Sorel Rising and he turned up today fit and healthy.

"I was hoping he got a run because he hasn't carried under 59.5 for 18 months, so with 54 on his back on his home track, he was fit for the first time this prep.

"I said to Buckets (Daniel Moor), 'he's 80/1 but he's a dead-set top-three chance'.

"The problem is you've got to ride him quiet and have one crack at them late and have everything go right. It turned out really good."

The win capped a remarkable day for Stanley, who is a part-owner of the winner of the Listed Golden Mile winner Here To Shock, a horse he once trained, but is now stabled with Ben and J.D. Hayes.

The former jockey turned trainer has made a habit of notching up winners on Bendigo's biggest race days, most notably with Red Alto in the 2018 Bendigo Cup.

"I think they were both the same price," Stanley reminisced post-race.

"When you know the horse's ability ... the problem is, everything has to go his way and today it worked out that way."

El Salto is no stranger either to success on feature race days.

He won for Stanley on Bendigo Cup day last year, when ridden by the trainer's 18-year-old son Jett.

It was the father-son combination's first win together as trainer and jockey.

Jockey Moor praised a tough win by El Salto, who notched up his sixth career win from 36 starts, and boosted his prize earnings to $269,515.

"This horse has got the ability, he just needs things to pan out," he said.

"He likes to lug in a fair bit and do a bit wrong, but it shaped really nicely for him.

"There was good tempo and we were able to take the cheap runs through, which was good.

"We thought that he could run a race. Winning was probably beyond him, but it's been a testing day so it's good to get a winner."

Asked about a tough final 400m of the race, Moor said:

"He had a bit of a think, so I had to use all the artillery to get him across the line.

"It's been a long time since he had his head in front that far out, so to his credit he got on the right leg again and went through the line well."

Stanley's other runner on Saturday, Sorel Rising finished eighth in the Listed Bendigo Guineas, beaten by 3.9-lengths after missing the start by three-lengths.

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