Godolphin's boom three-year-old never travelled kindly for the gun hoop in his return, prompting McDonald to be busy from the middle stages of the race and the flurry of hits in the home straight drew a $500 fine from stewards.

Sarajevo, a heavily backed even-money favourite, eventually clicked through the gears in the straight and cleared away from Sworn To Silence after giving his supporters some nervous moments.

But Murrihy hauled McDonald before stewards and showed vision of Sarajevo being struck four times more than permitted in a forehand manner before the 100-metre mark. It was McDonald's fifth whip breach in the past year.

"There's at least four [strikes more than allowed]," Murrihy said. "And if it got up any further we'd be into suspension territory."

The two had earlier engaged in a humorous exchange over the number of hits McDonald had breached the rule by, with the rider cheekily suggesting he had a responsibility to the punters on the short-priced favourite.

"I thought about it at the 125 [metres]," McDonald said. "I miscounted, but I was on a colt that was a short-priced favourite going nowhere."

Sarajevo didn't make it easy for his followers, but the distinct class edge told in the end.

Trainer John O'Shea is plotting a tentative path to the Australian Guineas for Sarajevo.

The colt was beaten by only three lengths in the group 1 Golden Rose in the spring and O'Shea will use the Autumn Stakes as the testing material for later in the campaign.

"He was a bit sluggish away and from what we've seen it's just in him," O'Shea said. "James was always going to get him to the right part of the track and I probably would have liked to se him win more convincingly, but he's on the board now."