Rob Heathcote will let the dust settle before deciding whether to send Availability interstate for the spring following the three-year-old's narrow victory at Eagle Farm.Availability, ridden by Jim Byrne, proved he was well above average by stepping up from a midweek maiden win on debut at Doomben last month to score by a long head over Lucky Tycoon in Saturday's Programmed Maintenance Services Handicap (1000m).Heathcote has a big opinion of the son of Exceed And Excel who led home a smart field

Rob Heathcote will let the dust settle before deciding whether to send Availability interstate for the spring following the three-year-old's narrow victory at Eagle Farm.

Availability, ridden by Jim Byrne, proved he was well above average by stepping up from a midweek maiden win on debut at Doomben last month to score by a long head over Lucky Tycoon in Saturday's Programmed Maintenance Services Handicap (1000m).

Heathcote has a big opinion of the son of Exceed And Excel who led home a smart field of three-year-olds and compared him favourably to his stable star Buffering.

"He's been an exciting horse from day one but he only just fell in," Heathcote said.

"I partly blame myself for that as I tried to freshen him up because of the drop back in distance.

"I wasn't happy with the programming and I would have preferred another 1100-metre race or even a step up to 1200 metres and had him ridden quietly.

"He might not be another Buffering yet but he's not far off him."

Heathcote will wait and see how Availability recovers before deciding if he'll join his team in Melbourne, headed by Buffering, for the spring.

"I haven't ruled out sending him to Sydney first then on to Melbourne," Heathcote said.

"I sent Buffering back and forth between Melbourne and Sydney last spring.

"I'll see how he pulls up after this run before making a decision."

Meanwhile, Heathcote will target next year's Caulfield Cup with stablemate Simmering following the four-year-old's six-length win over King Of The Nile in the Brand & Slater Architects Plate (2125m).

Simmering, another Byrne mount, made it three straight wins and five overall from 10 starts with his demolition job.

"He'll go to the paddock now and I'll look at some nice races in the spring next year like the Caulfield Cup," Heathcote said.

"I'll probably bring him back for a short three or four-run campaign in the summer and he may go to Sydney next year.

"He's onlyhad 10 runs and to win so easily, even though it's against this sort of opposition, proves he's a good horse."

Byrne had no doubts Simmering could measure up to the spring races in Melbourne in 12 months.

Patinack Farm's new Queensland team of foreman Brett Killion and apprentice Tim Bell stole the show at Eagle Farm with a winning treble.

Trainer John Thompson won the opening two races with Just Been Lucky (Madison Cleaning Services Handicap) and Miss Cutie (Herston Smash Repair Handicap) before Shamardashing won the St Margaret's Anglican Girls School Handicap (1820m).

Killion, who worked for 15 years as Gai Waterhouse's Sydney foreman, took over the running of Patinack farm's Queensland operation at Wadham Park in the Gold Coast hinterland three weeks ago.

His appointment followed Bell's decision to take up a contract to be Patinack Farm's stable rider in Queensland.