The race marks the start of a potentially huge fortnight for Messara who is on the Gold Coast preparing for next week's Magic Millions yearling sale in his role as manager of Arrowfield Stud, which has a draft of 58 horses being offered for sale.

Six of those are from the second crop of champion racehorse-turned-stallion Dundeel, but before any of those go under the hammer Messara hopes Caerless Choice can add a city win to the Muswellbrook Cup he claimed with a late lunge last month.

Following that was a fourth placing at Warwick Farm before Christmas – in similar grade to what he faces on Saturday – where Messara felt apprentice Andrew Adkins produced the horse a fraction early.

"I thought he ran pretty well, I actually thought that the jockey took off a bit early on him and set it up for the eventual winner," Messara said.

"We should've sat for a couple more strides and would've had a nice tag into the race. The sectionals tell a story a bit, they ran a pretty fast last 600.

"He's come, made up a lot of ground and probably plateaued 50 out from the line. He went to the line well, wasn't beaten by a long margin so I was happy with it. I think we've just got to save him up for a bit of a late run this time."

Christian Reith takes the ride on Saturday, returning to the saddle after piloting him to the Muswellbrook Cup crown, where he stormed home from last to first with a perfectly timed surge.

"It was a great race to win, you always like to win your local cups," Messara said.

"I won the Scone Cup some years ago with Obvious Choice, that was a while ago now.

"He's a Scone Cup type of horse, he's probably got to go up a couple of lengths. He'd certainly be in the field at the moment."

The Muswellbrook Cup added to Messara's impressive strike rate this season, which sits at 47 per cent after saddling up 17 runners.

He'll be eyeing a much higher clearance rate on the Gold Coast next week, and is particularly impressed by two Dundeel lots – a colt out of Redoute's Choice mare Opportunity who ran fourth in a Blue Diamond Stakes and has produced three winners, and another colt out of Glove who was a five-time winner.

Dundeel won six group 1 races including the 2013 Australian Derby and the 2014 Queen Elizabeth Stakes before retiring to stud.

"He's by High Chaparral out of a Zabeel mare so he's a lovely outcross for a lot of our Danehill line horses, Redoute's Choice, Not A Single Doubt, Snitzel, all those types of mares will be able to go to Dundeel," Messara said.

"That's the whole reason we were so attracted to him, aside from the fact he was a superior race horse."