Trainer Liam Birchley is hoping to convince the owners of Liesele to put retirement plans on hold after her Doomben win on Saturday.

Ridden by Glen Colless, Liesele ($13) won her first race in almost 12 months which Birchley attributed to a return to racing on a dry track.

"As she's getting older she needs a few more things in her favour like dry tracks and good barriers," he said.

"It's been pencilled in that she's going to stud but not locked in so I'll talk to the owners and see whether they want to push on for a bit longer."

Birchley and Colless combined to win last Thursday's Coffs Harbour Cup with Pepperwood who took his prize money earnings beyond the $1 million barrier when he won that race for the second year in a row.

Shafeeq, who was backed from $5.50 into $4.20 favouritism, led but weakened to finish seventh and pulled up with a breathing problem.

Earlier, jockey Ric McMahon blamed a muddling pace and seven day back-up for the costly failure of Keep It Moist in the Portabella Handicap (1350m).

Stewards asked McMahon if he could shed any light on the performance of Keep It Moist, who laboured into fourth placing as a heavily backed $1.70 favourite.

McMahon said the pace of the race on Saturday was in stark contrast to a week earlier when Keep It Moist staged a remarkable last-to-first win.

"Last week they went a thousand miles an hour up front, he was able to be three lengths off them at the furlong without doing any work and won running away," he said.

"But today they cantered in front and it was just too hard for him to make up ground."

McMahon also told stewards the gelding was unable to reproduce the same turn of foot as his previous start which he put down to the seven-day back-up.

Stewards also reported Topping and Gunner Knox bled for the first time and have been banned from racing for three months.