Culminate could well join stablemate Mufhasa in Sydney in the autumn after scoring a game win in the Group One Otaki Weight-For-Age.Culminate, the $6.10 second favourite for the 1600m feature at Otaki near Wellington, got home by a long head after appearing beaten half-way down the straight.Trainer Stephen McKee said he would now seriously consider sending Culminate to Sydney for the Group One Coolmore Classic (1500m) for fillies and mares at Rosehill on March 21.McKee also has Mufhasa bound for

Culminate could well join stablemate Mufhasa in Sydney in the autumn after scoring a game win in the Group One Otaki Weight-For-Age.

Culminate, the $6.10 second favourite for the 1600m feature at Otaki near Wellington, got home by a long head after appearing beaten half-way down the straight.

Trainer Stephen McKee said he would now seriously consider sending Culminate to Sydney for the Group One Coolmore Classic (1500m) for fillies and mares at Rosehill on March 21.

McKee also has Mufhasa bound for Sydney to contest the Doncaster Mile at Randwick in April.

McKee said the Coolmore Classic, run at set weights, was a good alternative to a race like the Easter Handicap in Auckland.

"She's getting up in the weights for those sorts of races," McKee told NZPA.

McKee twice won the Coolmore Classic with champion Sunline when he trained in partnership with his father Trevor and they also collected two Doncasters with the great mare.

Culminate was ridden by the country's leading rider Samantha Spratt but she admitted to being resigned to defeat when South Island visitor Eel Win went to the front in the straight.

"I was really amazed. I thought she (Culminate) was beaten," Spratt said.

"But the way she stretched out that last bit - she found the line really good."

The win continued a grand season for Spratt. It was her third Group One win for 2008-09 with Mufhasa providing the other two in the Telegraph Handicap (1200m) and the Waikato Sprint (1400m).

Spratt said the heavy track at Otaki did not greatly help Culminate who made the pace.

"She coped with it but I don't think she particularly liked it," she said.

"The whole way up the straight she was flopping all over the show. They had her beat half-way up the straight."

Eel Win, who raced outside the winner most of the way, held second while a length away third was Atapi who ran on well.

Earlier Six O'Clock News reinforced favouritism for next month's Auckland Cup when he won the St Leger Trial (2100m).

The four-year-old Zabeel gelding had only five rivals but trainer Paddy Busuttin said all was falling into the place for the $1 million Auckland Cup (3200m) on March 4.

"That will clean him up nicely. He'll be spot on for 12 days' time," Busuttin said.