"That was Nathan’s win today," Berry said only four days after the racing community turned up for his twin brother Nathan's funeral. "It’s been the hardest week of my life that’s for sure, but no harder than it’s been for Nathan.

"I’ve got Nathan up there riding every step of the way. The past three weeks has turned my life upside down, but I’m doing what I love and what Nathan loved to do and that is to try and ride winners."

A grieving Berry had not ridden a winner since Nathan's death from the rare Norse syndrome stunned the industry. Perhaps it was fitting The Offer ($2.50 favourite), his last winner in the Manion Cup before Nathan passed away, was the horse to give him his first winner since.

And trainer Gai Waterhouse knew what it meant to Tulloch Lodge's No.1 rider.

"He's an exceptional young man," Waterhouse said. "He's been under absolutely huge emotional pressure and he's handled himself completely brilliantly.

"He has been yearning for a win to shake off what he's gone through. He's very, very talented as well as a wonderful and loving young man. He supports his family and his brother's fiancee [Whitney Berry]."

That The Offer now has an iron-clad grip on the Sydney Cup almost seemed completely irrelevant after the race. But Waterhouse is likely to add Sydney's premier two-mile race to the import's resume before targeting the spring majors in Melbourne.

"He's a really exciting stayer who is just doing everything right," Waterhouse said. "Every time you throw the ball, he catches it and keeps improving all the time. He just loves the [heavy] going and he's a really exciting horse."

John Thompson's Tremec ($17) prevented Waterhouse from claiming the quinella in the Chairman's Handicap, finishing 2 1/4-lengths adrift of the winner, while Hippopus ($8.50) was a further neck back in third.

"He ran fantastic again and hopefully he makes the Sydney Cup field because he’ll run well," jockey Christian Reith said of Tremec.

Sertorius opened equal favourite with bookmakers on course, but drifted alarmingly from $2.50 to $4 before running fourth a week after an eye-catching run in The BMW.

"It was an honest effort, but the negatives went against him today," jockey Ryan Maloney said. "Carrying 59 kilograms and backing up from a heavy track really took its toll in the final 400 metres. I don’t know if they go to the Sydney Cup now, but he’ll still be in the mix.''