Talented filly Manaudou did everything right in her maiden win at Eagle Farm to convince trainer Kelso Wood bigger things might be in store during the Brisbane winter carnival.Manaudou, named after France's Olympic gold medal swimmer Laure Manaudou, scored a long neck win over Chi Chi Grande in Wednesday's Miss Danehill Plate (1400m).Manaudou became her country's first gold medal winner in women's swimming when she won the 400-metre freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics.Her namesake's win gave j

Talented filly Manaudou did everything right in her maiden win at Eagle Farm to convince trainer Kelso Wood bigger things might be in store during the Brisbane winter carnival.

Manaudou, named after France's Olympic gold medal swimmer Laure Manaudou, scored a long neck win over Chi Chi Grande in Wednesday's Miss Danehill Plate (1400m).

Manaudou became her country's first gold medal winner in women's swimming when she won the 400-metre freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Her namesake's win gave jockey Brad Pengelly a winning double after he scored aboard the Brian Smith-trained Loves A Challenge in the Sheer Kingston Plate (1400m).

Pengelly gave a strong report to Wood after the filly broke through for her first win in five starts.

"She's still not there yet but she's on the right track," Pengelly said.

Wood has no doubt Manaudou, a $200,000 purchase at the Magic Millions sales, can progress to Saturday class and eventually to the winter races.

"She'll make the grade in the city on Saturdays once she gets up in distance," Wood said.

"She's out of a good staying family and she'll be a lot better over more ground."

Manaudou, who had the run of the race, was runner-up at her previous two starts at Eagle Farm and Ipswich which gave Wood the confidence for her breakthrough victory.

"She was beaten at the weights in her previous run at Ipswich when the winner had the drop on her and she was only beaten a nose at Eagle Farm the previous start," Wood said.

Wood is hoping Manaudou will prove a worthy winter back-up to his talented filly Zero Rock who was spelled following her last-start win in the Magic Millions Plate (1200m) at the Gold Coast last month.

"Zero Rock is into the third week of a four-week spell. I've been going to see her every week and she looks terrific," Wood said.

Wood opted to spell Zero Rock following her Magic Millions day victory instead of targeting the Listed J Cadell-Garrick Handicap (1200m) at Eagle Farm on January 24.

"I could have run her in the Listed race last month but she would have had to be rushed back for the winter races," he said.

"She'll probably resume some time in May and there's a lot of suitable fillies and mares races for her coming up in the winter.

"I'll also nominate her for the Stradbroke as three-year-old fillies, like La Montagna, get in well at the weights."

La Montagna won the Group One Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm in 2006 before she was eventually retired following her Group One Doomben 10,000 failure last year.

Jockey Larry Cassidy continued his great start to his Brisbane career by winning aboard the Rob Heathcote-trained Vera's Pride in the Camarena Handicap (1300m) before being forced to stand down from his remaining four rides with an injured finger.