Adelaide mare Miss Pavlova has scored an emotional win at Caulfield for her trainer Bill Smart after the passing of his brother-in-law, dual Caulfield Cup winning jockey John Stocker.Smart dedicated Friday's victory in the Allan Wicks Handicap (2390m) to Stocker who was 61 when he died in his sleep early on Christmas Day after a long battle with cancer."It is fitting that she (Miss Pavlova) has won this race," Smart said."It is pretty emotional."Tragedy also struck the household of Miss Pavlova'

Adelaide mare Miss Pavlova has scored an emotional win at Caulfield for her trainer Bill Smart after the passing of his brother-in-law, dual Caulfield Cup winning jockey John Stocker.

Smart dedicated Friday's victory in the Allan Wicks Handicap (2390m) to Stocker who was 61 when he died in his sleep early on Christmas Day after a long battle with cancer.

"It is fitting that she (Miss Pavlova) has won this race," Smart said.

"It is pretty emotional."

Tragedy also struck the household of Miss Pavlova's jockey Peter Mertens who woke to a text message on Christmas morning notifying him of the passing of a family friend.

"It was not a good way to start Christmas Day," Mertens said.

He said Smart told him of Stocker's passing and he was glad he was able to boot home Miss Pavlova for his family.

"Hopefully it will give them some kind of pick-up," Mertens said.

Miss Pavlova scored by 1-1/4 lengths from Schawmen and Good Red and will now be aimed at the Port Adelaide Cup (2250m) on February 14.

"We are really looking forward to it," Smart said. "We mainly brought her over to see how she would handle the distance today."

On Friday jockeys at Randwick wore black armbands in the first race as a mark of respect for Stocker who served his apprenticeship with Hall Of Fame trainer Colin Hayes and rode about 1860 winners in 24 years.

At 17 he became the third youngest jockey to win a Caulfield Cup when successful on Yangtze in 1964 while his Caulfield Cup winning ride on Hayes-trained How Now in 1976 from a wide barrier is regarded as one of the finest in the Cup's history.

Three-time premier jockey Craig Williams said the ride was legendary.

"When I rode Guillotine and he drew an outside barrier in this year's Caulfield Cup I was told to look at John Stocker's ride on How Now to get some pointers," Williams said.

Stocker rode in 15 Melbourne Cups with his best results being a second and a third.

He was one of only three jockeys to win on the champion sprinter Manikato, while the great Tobin Bronze, Taras Bulba, and Maybe Mahal were among other stars he rode in his career.

He also had international success in South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand.