AN EMOTIONAL Brenton Avdulla said he believed that yesterday's Epsom Handicap winner Secret Admirer had the ability to win this year's Cox Plate after the former Victorian jockey recorded his third group 1 success, reports the Sunday Age. It says: The one-time leading apprentice who left Melbourne for Sydney 18 months ago, said he ''shed a tear'' as he went over the line to win. The change from Melbourne for Sydney has reaped many rewards and it was on this day last year, on Secret Admirer, that

AN EMOTIONAL Brenton Avdulla said he believed that yesterday's Epsom Handicap winner Secret Admirer had the ability to win this year's Cox Plate after the former Victorian jockey recorded his third group 1 success, reports the Sunday Age.

It says: The one-time leading apprentice who left Melbourne for Sydney 18 months ago, said he ''shed a tear'' as he went over the line to win. The change from Melbourne for Sydney has reaped many rewards and it was on this day last year, on Secret Admirer, that he won his first group 1 in the Flight Stakes.

''I think I did have a cry near the line,'' Avdulla said. ''I really love this mare, she's been so good to me and she's so honest and she showed today her real ability. I've won three group 1 races so far in my career. Two of them have been on Secret Admirer, so she has a very special place in my heart. I just hope she can take this form to Melbourne and reproduce it in the Cox Plate because, on her day, she's very, very good.''

Trainer Grahame Begg was equally elated with Secret Admirer's return to form after the mare performed indifferently at her last start.

''I don't know what it was, whether having three weeks off and running into a hard track was her undoing, I really just don't know,'' he said. ''But one I thing I do know is that she can run and run quickly, as you would've seen today. We'll take her home now, have a look at her and head for the Cox Plate. She won't have another run before the Cox Plate. She's had a hard run today and she's got to have a trip to Melbourne and it's only three weeks until the race at Moonee Valley, so that will sit nicely.''