The Donna Scott-trained Lord Von Costa remains on target to run the race of his life in the Kosciuszko in a fortnight.
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Scott's stable star importantly emerged unscathed after finishing at the tail of the field when taking on some of the nation's best sprinters in the Group 2 $500,000 Premier Stakes, (1200m) at Randwick on the weekend.
Lord Von Costa with Blaike McDougall aboard finished just over 10-lengths behind Libertini who made a stunning return to racing and burst into calculations for the $15m The Everest.
Libertini claimed the prized scalp of Nature Strip who faded to finish fourth after carving out some slick sectionals early.
Scott said pre-race that she would be satisfied if Lord Von Costa could get within 10-lengths of the winner considering the quality of the opposition.
"I said pre-race if we got beat between eight to 10-lengths I would be happy," Scott said.
"We got beat by a bit over 10-lengths and Blaike was reasonably happy with the effort.
"Blaike said he was on the back of the winner until he knocked up over the last furlong.
"I knew we were at about 80 per cent fitness heading into the race and he had a good blow after it.
"Looking at the times and stuff like that it wasn't a bad effort because I'm sure they won't be running those sorts of times in the Kosciuszko."
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Lord Von Costa has be plagued by tendon issues throughout his career but Scott said her slick sprinter had pulled-up fine.
"He always performs better second or third-up from a spell," she said.
"He raced a bit fresh and was keen in the run.
"I feel it will also be beneficial of having the trip to Sydney.
"The vet went over his legs on Sunday morning and he said the horse has pulled-up fine.
"I will probably head up to Sydney for the Kosciuszko a couple of days beforehand just to give him a bit of extra time to acclimatise to the weather."
Meanwhile the Geoff Duryea-trained Front Page was a comfortable winner in a trial at Wagga on Saturday.
In his final public hit-out before the Kosciuszko on October 17, Front Page ran slick time when defeating the Chris Heywood trained Blitzar.
The pair gapped the rest of the field by more than 10-lengths and ran the last 600m in 32.76 seconds.
