An emotional Brunton said the win was a reward for a horse whose career never reached the heights that it should have.

"The horse was going to be a superstar but then he was struck down with a bad injury," Brunton said.

The Mornington Cup guarantees the winner a start in this year's Caulfield Cup but Brunton is likely to resist the temptation.

"You've got to have a look at the Caulfield Cup but I've always been a glass half-full, glass half-empty bloke," Brunton said.

"I'm a realist and I know how tough a race it is."

Ridden by Dean Holland, Banca Mo ($13) scored a three-quarter length victory over Big Memory ($6.50) with Don Doremo ($9.50) a length away third.

Brunton had plans to give Banca Mo his chance in the 2013 Caulfield Cup after winning the Warrnambool Cup.

But in the early stages of that preparation, Banca Mo was found to have a floating bone chip in a hock which put him on the sideline.

Brunton said the Mornington Cup hadn't been on the radar for Banca Mo but close defeats in the Hobart Cup and Launceston Cup had brought the gelding to the peak of fitness.

"Just to win a race with a horse that cost two grand and that has had that much trouble is unbelievable," Brunton said.

"I was looking at him in the yard before the race thinking 'are you right?'

"I just worry about him so much."

The Mornington Cup was a second big-race success for Dean Holland after he rode Tanby to victory in the Adelaide Cup earlier in the month.

"Scott just said to roll forward until you get in from the wide barrier," Holland said.

"We had it pretty easy and I still had plenty of horse coming to the home turn.

"When the other one headed me, my horse just fought back so hard."