Anthony Freedman-trained filly Crucial has beaten a host of more highly rated horses to take out the $115,000 Group 3 Schweppervescence Stakes (1800m) at Adelaide’s Morphetville Racecourse today.

Paying $18.00, Crucial scored her first ever Group level victory in the race otherwise known as the Auraria Stakes ahead of Rahveel and Crimson Lady.

Highly rated pre-race favourite Empress Rock looked the horse to beat with a half-length lead as the field headed in to the final straight but she could not hang on after setting the pace for much of the race.

It was an exciting finish to $115,000 event which was one of two feature races at the premier South Australian racecourse today.

Crucial added a lucrative $73,000 to her career prize pool that previously stood at just under $47,000.

Owned by prolific horse racing identity Sheik Mohammed, the three-year-old now has three victories from 11 career starts.

Today was just her first effort at Group level and after showing promise in an excellent finish it is likely bigger races are to come for the daughter of Nadeem.

The disappointing fifth-place finish for Empress Rock ended an impressive streak of form the Fastnet Rock filly who was on track for a third consecutive win.

Trained by Bart Cummings, Empress Rock finished runner-up in the Typhoon Tracy Stakes before winning the Group 2 Kewney Stakes at Flemington and the Sportingbet Fillies Classic at Moonee Valley.