Payne said he struggled to get the best out of Zed Em last year but the galloper's former trainer, New Zealander Kevin Myers, guaranteed him the six-year-old bay gelding would come back bigger and better this season.

Those words proved prophetic after Zed Em led throughout in the Brierly, dictating terms from the very start over 19 fences.

But, half-way down the home straight – with the jumping all finished - the Darren Weir-trained Now And Zen loomed large.

The $7.5 chance came from a couple of lengths down after jumping the last obstacle to draw almost level with 100 metres to travel and Zed Em looked gone.

But the $3 favourite, aided by three-time Brierly winning jockey Steve Pateman, lifted to salute by a length. 

Colac jumper King Of The Forest - trained by four-time Grand Annual winning jockey Butch Londregan - stormed home to finish third beaten three lengths.

It was a promising Grand Annual trial.

Payne said in the closing stages he thought Zed Em looked likely to run second.

"He looked gone half-way up the straight," he said.

"It's a pretty big ask to win the Von Doussa and then come over here. ​The Myers family have been great friends and winning helps, I suppose.

"Steve Pateman rode him really well."

Payne said that as a trainer he struggled to get the best out of Zed Em last year.​

"Kevin said he would come back a lot better, a lot stronger. He was right. He's definitely matured and another year of work under his belt has helped," he said.

"He had done all his work before the Von Doussa. He pulled up excellent. He was strong at the end of it today. He was tested.

"He's just a better horse this time in ... a lot tougher."

Payne said he would probably set Zed Em for the Australian Steeplechase.

"It was a tough race today, a much stronger field than the Von Doussa. He was there to be beaten and he still won," he said.

"We just thought he needed another season before we thought about trying him over the true staying jumps races," he said.

"We'll have another look at that next year. He is a dasher. He got along at a nice relaxed gallop today. It was a good horse that loomed up," he said.

Pateman said Zed Em dug deep.

"He just found something special,” he said.

“He was out on his feet and the other horse is a really good horse and he just said 'nah, I'm not done with' and just came again," he said.

"It was pretty comfortable in the end on the line. He really deserves to win it. He is a real dasher.

"Going to the start today he was on it and a few of the boys were saying they were going to lead and I was like 'yeah, I don't know about that'."

Pateman said leading was always the plan.

"The ground is patchy. It's really heavy in some spots and not so heavy in other spots,”he said.

"I think he was going pretty steady at the right spots.

​"He is so good down that hill and over that double, I jumped​ Al Garhood (the jump down the hill) and kicked him in the belly and he just took off down the hill,” he said.