The five-year-old stormed home to a 1.5-length victory over defending champion Gold Medals, who was followed to the post by Dormello Mo.

Warrnambool-based part-owner Phil Mitchem, who secured his first victory in the prestigious jumps race, paid tribute to Bit Of A Lad's suspended trainer.

"He was a horse that 'Weiry' wanted to get the Warrnambool boys in and he got us all here on a Thursday afternoon and said to just get them in," an emotional Mitchem said.

"He is really Weiry's horse and he has brought him along. We had heaps of horses with Weiry. We had some group one horses with him such as Trust In The Gust and Palentino. He had steered us onto horses all the time."

The south-west connections include Mitchem, John Walsh, brothers Mark and John Atchinson and Brisbane Lions legend Jonathan Brown.

Mitchem said the transfer of Bit Of A Lad from Darren Weir's stables to Ciaron Maher's had been some-what smooth.

"It's been a big change (shifting from Darren Weir) and you lose the personal contact a bit but I have known Ciaron for years," he said.

"We've had horses with him for a long time and for me it's not been a great change but for a lot of the other guys it is."

Mitchem was thoroughly pleased with how jockey Steven Pateman steered Bit Of A Lad to victory.

"Unbelievable ride, I couldn't believe how he saved ground everywhere," he said. "At the 600 and 400-metre marks out I thought 'you know he is right here'."

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