Matt Laurie could hardly contain his admiration for Treasurethe Moment after the Oaks-winning filly stamped herself as a genuine open-age star with a stunning return in the Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield.

The youngest in the nine-horse field and still two months away from her fourth birthday, Treasurethe Moment ($6) defied expectations under Damian Lane to put a space on her rivals, surging to a 2-½ length victory over Mr Brightside ($7) with Buckaroo ($61) flashing home for third.

“It was one of the best Memsie fields we’ve seen in some time,” Laurie said. “I wasn’t expecting to be coming here and winning, but she had come up very well and to win in such fashion, is pretty incredible. There was good pace, and you just knew coming to the turn, if she got the breaks, that she would burst through.”

Laurie marvelled at the way she quickened. “I have never seen a horse travel that well around the bend and quicken up like she did… to come back from winning two Oaks and against a field like this over seven furlongs, it’s mind blowing.”

Treasurethe Moment will now head to the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) and the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m), before connections decide between the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) or a Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) showdown with Via Sistina. “On that run, 2000 metres at The Valley, she’d have to be some chance,” Laurie said.

Lane said the mare had been every bit as explosive as hoped. “We were hoping what we were seeing in her trackwork, and trials would translate into today, and it did… she was electrifying.”