Fontein Ruby, the lesser fancied of the pair, showed courage and tenacity to fight off all challengers and come again to win after being headed in the drive to the line.

The $13 shot responded gamely to Mark Zahra's urgings to resist the late charge of her stablemate, Crafty, a $6 chance under Craig Wiliams, and to prevail by a neck.

The third horse and the first of the males home was $51 shot Firehouse Rock. He looked the winner when he hit the front in the closing stages only to be out-fought by the game-as-a-pebble fillies.

His trainer, David Hayes, was not pleased with the timing of jockey Nick Hall, whom he believed had hit the front too early.

Hall had been seen to great effect some 40 minutes earlier when taking out the listed Ethereal Stakes on Set Square, but Hayes thought he should have exercised more patience in the Classic.

"At the 800 [metres] he had the race covered, he just exposed him too early and went at the 400," said Hayes, whose stable is enjoying a renaissance this spring. "By the 200 he was legless, when he was supposed to be coming into the race full of steam.

"He was the best of the colts and we have a horse going forward to the derby with a real hope."

The well-backed colts Kumaon ($3.80 favourite), from the Godolphin camp, and Mike Moroney's Merion, which came a creditable sixth in the Caulfield Guineas last weekend, were eclipsed.

The latter, under Steven Arnold, led until weakening at the 400m mark and finished ninth.

Kumaon never got warm for Kerrin McEvoy and finished last.

Neither Hayes' displeasure nor the failures of the well-fancied colts and geldings should take the shine off the triumph of the two fillies, both of which will now be set for the VRC Oaks.

Its 2500m distance should, on paper, better suit the more stoutly bred Crafty. But that is what Smerdon thought pre-race would be the case in the 2000m Caulfield Classic.

"The fillies against the colts have done a good job," Smerdon said. "We looked at the prizemoney here and had a crack at this race [instead of the Ethereal Stakes, worth $630,000 less].

"I have to say that the winner doesn't really have a pedigree to run the trip, so she was really being tested. The second filly I thought would run the trip better, but I will accept the outcome.

"The Wakeful and then Oaks is the way we were going to go. I don't see a reason to change.

"Maybe Crafty will go straight to the Oaks. Crafty gets back and has to do the hard work getting around them; Fontein Ruby is up front punching from the start. She's got a great constitution. The question was whether she could run the 2000, but she keeps pulling something out.

"We would have run in the fillies' race but for the big carrot – the prizemoney is outstanding."

Zahra has been aboard the daughter of the sprinter Turffontein for four wins in her last five starts. Unsurprisingly, he is an unabashed fan.

"It was huge and because I have had a close assocition with her it makes it more special," he said. "She's a tart in the mornings, but that fight she's got, she puts the aggression in the race.

"I thought she was beaten a couple of times. Nick got half a length on me and I thought, 'We are not done yet'. She just fights and sticks her head out, so you are always a good hope in a finish.

"I was very doubtful today at the 2000m because she never switches right off, she gets her head up and wants to get on with it. She did the same today. She went from a mile today, they got to me a fair way out and she was strong all the way to the post.

"It will be a test [staying the 2500m trip of the Oaks] but you have probably got to give her a shot."

Williams said of Crafty: "It was a great run to make up the ground she did from where she was. She'll be better at Flemington."