The Melbourne Cup-winning trainer intensely studied attempts by leading SA trainers to break into the Melbourne racing scene before launching his own raid.

"I'd seen Leon Macdonald, Phillip Stokes, David Balfour and Mark Minervini all go over to Victoria to set up stables and come home with their tails between their legs," Kavanagh said with his usual frankness.

"I'm the benchmark now because they all had a red-hot go and didn't make it."

Kavanagh, who won the 2008 Cox Plate with Maldivian and this year's Melbourne Cup with Shocking, took the gamble to set-up his Victorian operation at Flemington in March 2007.

"I knew it was a risk because those guys are quite good trainers, but I studied their movements and streamlined the operation and made sure I did it better," he said.

After almost 20 years as a trainer the former jumps jockey has the racing world at his feet and has made giant strides from the modest surrounds of Mount Gambier.

"Just quietly and unassumingly we made a bit of progress over the years," Kavanagh said.

"We used to raid over the border and had won a Blue Diamond and an Emirates, but I had to wait until I had the right horses and knew I could make a good impression."

Kavanagh has expressed his pride in becoming the latest in list of Melbourne Cup-winning trainers from SA that includes, Jim and Bart Cummings, Colin and David Hayes, Grahame Heagney, Mick Robins, George Hanlon and David Hall.

He is grateful for his tough grounding in the competitive environment of the SA racing scene.

"If you can succeed in Adelaide you should be able to succeed anywhere," he said.

"There are not a lot of big owners in Adelaide and you've got to work hard to look after them.

"We only race twice a week and you've got to be on top of your game to win consistently in those circumstances. That grounding has held me in good stead since I moved to Victoria.

New owners have recognised that and come on board."

Kavanagh said he would not be abandoning SA, but still would like to see a higher degree of professionalism at every level. "If we want to get racing to flourish we can't keep treating it like a two-bob industry. Penny-pinching is never the answer," he said.

"We have too many poor service issues here that people wouldn't put up with anywhere else. We can and need to do so much better in attracting people to our sport, but we aren't selling up as some people want to suggest. We're leading the trainers premiership and are determined to give David Hayes and Leon Macdonald a run for their money."