Trainer Trevor Bailey is hopeful his success story with Melbourne cast-offs will continue with Cardinal Virtue who makes his Queensland debut in Saturday's Group Two Victory Stakes at Eagle Farm.Bailey lived in Melbourne for five years when an assistant to his father, Gold Coast trainer Alan Bailey, and in that time built a strong rapport with Victorian clients.Cardinal Virtue was formerly trained by Lee Freeman but was sold following his failure when he tailed the field in the Listed Grazia Sty

Trainer Trevor Bailey is hopeful his success story with Melbourne cast-offs will continue with Cardinal Virtue who makes his Queensland debut in Saturday's Group Two Victory Stakes at Eagle Farm.

Bailey lived in Melbourne for five years when an assistant to his father, Gold Coast trainer Alan Bailey, and in that time built a strong rapport with Victorian clients.

Cardinal Virtue was formerly trained by Lee Freeman but was sold following his failure when he tailed the field in the Listed Grazia Style (1100m) won by Burdekin Blues at Flemington in November.

"Darley owned him but because they doubted him being a Group One horse they decided to turn him over and sell him," Bailey said.

"I'm not sure what he was sold for but his new owners sent him to me.

"About 80 per cent of his owners are new clients of mine but the others have raced horses with me in the past."

Cardinal Virtue, who is still an entire, has won three of his 11 starts and has been nominated for the Group One BTC Cup (1200m) at Doomben on May 15.

"He's only a short-course horse so I didn't nominate him for either the Doomben 10,000 or Stradbroke," Bailey said.

"He had a break after his last run and he's been in work with me for about 10 weeks."

Cardinal Virtue, a Glen Colless mount, has been primed for a strong first-up showing with two barrier trials this month.

"He ran second in the first trial at the Gold Coast and then he came out and ran the fastest time of the day when he easily won over 1100 metres at Eagle Farm," Bailey said.

Cardinal Virtue downed Victory Stakes rival Albert The Fat by 4-1/2 lengths in his latest hitout.

"The horse is going great and at this stage everything is right with him," Bailey said.

"It's up to him now to take his best three-year-old form from last season into this race.

As a three-year-old Cardinal Virtue beat 2008 Magic Millions Classic winner Augusta Proud in the Listed Redelva Stakes (1000m) at Cheltenham in February last year.

Despite his sparkling trackwork form, Bailey remains cautious about Cardinal Virtue's prospects.

"He's only had 11 starts for three wins and if he runs up to his trackwork he'll be very competitive," he said.

"He's still a stallion and I've seen it all before with them after they work so well on the tracks.

"Horses like him can do it on the track of a morning but they can let you down on race day.

"Hopefully he'll run a nice race and then we'll know where to head with him after the BTC Cup."

Bailey's success with Melbourne cast-offs have included Listed race winners Perfect Dancer and Barlinnie while Fasliyev Dancer has won eight of his nine races since heading north.