Northerly Orr Stakes over 1,400 metres at Caulfield and victory in the St George Stakes at the same venue a fortnight later, but Old Comrade came with a well-timed run to win the Cup in a boilover. After a tough campaign, with very little rest and stretching from August to March, Fred Kersley decided to give Northerly a good spell in the lead-up to his spring campaign. After beginning his campaign in an unsuitably short sprint in Perth, Northerly arrived in Melbourne for the Memsie Stakes, but tried to bite one of his rivals, Fields Of Omagh, and was unplaced. Backing
Northerly failed to reach the same heights. Wins in the St George Stakes and the Australian Cup (by four lengths) were interspersed with defeats in the Orr Stakes and the Victoria Gold Cup, where he was defeated as a long-odds-on favourite by the hitherto unheralded Mr Trickster. In Sydney, Northerly was also odds-on favourite in his three starts, but failed to win. In the Ranvet Stakes, he was run down by Republic Lass; in the Manion Cup, he was unplaced; in The BMW Stakes, Freemason set a course-record pace, and Northerly was unable to run him down, as the two horses