A timely return to form in her last start could set up Victorian raider Dazzling Lucy for an upset against the local favourites in Hobart this Friday.

Despite a three-year gap between victories following her Moonee Valley win in December 2022, the six-year-old mare’s recent success at Flemington in a benchmark 78 race over 1100m has given trainer Tony Noonan confidence heading into the Group 3 Mystic Journey Stakes (1200m) for fillies and mares.

“She’s as good as I can get her and she’s had the ideal prep with two runs leading into it,” Noonan said from Brighton, just north of Hobart.

“She’s still on the up in that sense and I think she’s well placed in it.”

Dazzling Lucy ($12) will need to overcome local contenders, including Geegees Mistruth ($2.70 betting favourite), who resumes from a spell after an unplaced run in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield last November, and Ms Tasmania ($4.40), who is chasing a sixth consecutive victory.

“They’re both three-year-olds and I don’t think the history of the race lends itself to them so much as I don’t think they’ve won it in more than 20 years,” Noonan noted.

“They get weight relief off our mare, but she is a big, strong, mature mare who has travelled before and is in form.

“She needed to be strong through the line at Flemington and she put the pressure on when she needed to.

“She’s been running consistently without winning in city races back home.”

The Mystic Journey Stakes has been dominated by Victorian-trained mares in the past five editions. The race is part of the opening day of Hobart’s two-day Cup meeting, which is headlined by the Hobart Cup on Sunday.