Beauty's Beast has proved weight of numbers is no guarantee of victory with his win at Rosehill.

Premier Sydney trainer Chris Waller had five of the eight runners in the 1400-metre benchmark 95 but the Danny O'Brien-trained Beauty's Beast dug deep for James McDonald to nose out Amovatio in a photo finish.

The winner of the Listed South Pacific Classic in Sydney in the autumn for New Zealand trainer David Greene, Beauty's Beast appreciated his return to clockwise racing after four unplaced starts in Melbourne.

McDonald said the Waller army did not make his task easy.

"The Waller horses made me do it the hard way," McDonald said.

"If I had found the rail he would have won by a neck - or maybe a half neck."

Stablemates Amovatio, Pythagorean and You'll Never filled the next three placings.

Beauty's Beast's win was also a rare defeat in a photo finish for veteran jockey Jim Cassidy.

Earlier Hugh Bowman's experience paid off when Off The Rails prevailed in a similar situation over Sam Clipperton's mount Magical Stance in the 1500-metre benchmark 78.

McDonald was also involved on third-placed Frespanol with the margins a nose by a nose.

It was a finish that fooled winning trainer Bjorn Baker.

"I thought he'd run second," Baker said.

"I've had so many placings in the past few months I expected to get second.

"Hugh rode him superbly and the horse is being aimed at the Magic Millions 1800-metre race next month."

Bowman said he was confident during the race but not so confident at the end.

"At the 300 metres I thought I was going to win easily," he said.

"I knew I had Sammy covered but I wasn't sure about the other horse."