A big season for Beer got even better on Saturday when Mnemneth ($31) caused a boilover in the $130,000 Benchmark 78 C,G&E Handicap (1200m) at Rosehill.

Albury-based jockey Jason Lyon produced the perfect steer to give him victory in his first Sydney metropolitan ride.

Mnementh powered through the heavy conditions, storming to the front early in the straight before holding off the Chris Waller-trained El Buena ($7.00) to score by one and a quarter lengths.

Beer wasted no time in pushing Mnementh's Kosciuszko claims.

"If the Kosciuszko was next month he would be one of the top picks in my eyes. There's not too many country NSW sprinters going better than him," Beer said.

"When you have a horse like this whose rating has gone up, there's not a huge amount of options for him and they all involve travel and stuff like that, which is taxing on the horse so we'll get home, let the dust settle and we'll work out what we're going to do.

"It's a nice position to be in as opposed to driving home from Wagga thinking do we even patch this up or do we give him away."

The trip from Wagga Beer refers to was the Country Championships back in February. Mnementh suffered a partial bleed and the Albury trainer thought the five-year-old's racing career might have been over.

"I'm over the moon. It's been an absolute rollercoaster but you've never been able to write off that he wouldn't get to this level," he said.

"There's been times where he's looked like he's been finished, when he bled in the Country Championships and driving home thinking about which one of the girls are going to take him home as a pet.

"I thought the whole way along he was my best chance for the Country Championship and when it happened I didn't see it coming at all, in any way shape or form. But to be fair, it's been a career-defining race because we came home with a massive issue and it changed everything, we changed the way we train him, changed the way we treat him and he's a completely different horse."

Beer has enjoyed a number of Highway wins since his move to Albury almost four years ago but said it was even more satisfying to capture an open Saturday city race.

"They're very hard races to win. When you shoot three or four lengths in front and you've got one of Wallers coming out of the pack and running you down, you're playing at a decent level," he said.

"I think the favourite in that race had run second in a group three last start so Sydney Saturday racing is tough, at any level, so the result is one thing but how he did it is another part because he never looked like getting beat."

MORE SPORT NEWS

The Golden Topaz at Swan Hill next month was originally on Mnementh's radar but Beer conceded the paddock is now a serious option with the Kosciuszko in October in mind.

"I think we're out of races locally for him now. I don't know what his rating will go to now but already the main couple of races for him have just gone and he won one of them and run second in one of them so the two sprints he can run in aren't for another 12 months at home," he said.

"The Golden Topaz at Swan Hill was a race we were looking at but even though he's struck a very good patch, he's bled in a Country Championships, we got him going again to win so there's every chance we might pull up stumps for a little while and look after him because he's gone to another level and putting him to the sword, well, if you go to the well one too many times with a horse with issues, you might not get them back.

"We're pretty much in June. The (Kosciuszko) is early October. You go to the paddock for five weeks, when you come back, you're not racing for 12 (weeks). All of a sudden you're only six, seven weeks out from a Kosciusko."

Meantime, Beer said he is keen to get Hardware Lane checked out after he did not pull up overly well when a beaten favourite in the Highway Handicap.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: