Zou Sensation may still have a few quirks to iron out in his racing style, but he is set to be aimed at higher honours after taking out Saturday’s $150,000 Victorian Jockeys’ Association Trophy at Flemington.

The six-year-old son of Zoustar made it three straight wins with a determined on-pace display over 1410m in the Benchmark 100 event.

After two victories at Caulfield, co-trainer Will Larkin, who prepares the gelding with Leon and Troy Corstens, indicated the Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield next month is firmly on the radar.

“He’s definitely a horse that is starting to put his hand up as one that could probably go to a Rupert Clarke in time,” Larkin said.

“We’ll probably be looking at that and, how he gets there, we’ll work it out.

“I think he’s definitely a better horse when he’s chasing and allowed to get cover, so when we go up in grade and get into those better races there’s going to be better tempo and he’s probably going to be allowed to do that.”

Jamie Melham allowed Zou Sensation to roll forward from a wide draw before working to get him settled mid-race. Despite over-racing, the $2.30 betting site favourite dug deep in the straight to hold off Running By ($13) by a long head, with Fortunate Kiss ($11) finishing a long neck away in third.

Melham labelled Zou Sensation as “arrogant” but said that confidence was part of what makes him so effective.

“He was always going to win then they got to him and he pinned his ears back and got angry and was not going to let them past him,” Melham said.

“He’s just an arrogant horse. He knows he’s good.”

Saturday’s victory, his seventh from 25 starts, lifted the Bennett Racing gelding’s career earnings past $500,000.