This year’s Stawell Gift has been won in controversial circumstances.

Talia Martin, 15, scored a thrilling win in Australia’s richest footrace on Monday but was fined $2000 by stewards afterwards.

They said her form improved more in two weeks than most athletes expected in a lifetime.

‘It was significant enough for the chief steward Brian Marantelli to say it was like winning a maiden at Pakenham and then going to the Cox Plate,’ Jon Anderson explained on 3AW Breakfast.

Ando said there was no sign of any foul play, but the rate of improvement did come by surprise.

‘There’s a big difference but you’d hope with a 15-year-old they weren’t doing something like that,’ he said.?

‘The betting didn’t suggest there was any big plunge but when you’re running for $40,000 first prize ? you don’t need any big plunge in the betting.’?

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