South Australian trainer David Jolly is hoping Avoid Lightning provides him with the answers to some key questions when she runs at Moonee Valley on Saturday.

A glance at the mare's form suggests she is a specialist wet-tracker but Jolly is convinced he has a versatile runner who can move up to black type level soon.

Avoid Lightning took superb Adelaide form into her Melbourne debut last start when she ran a bold fourth in the Group Three Cockram Stakes at Caulfield in August.

The four-year-old has chalked up five wins from her seven starts, four on rain-affected tracks, but Jolly believes she has the ability to be competitive on firmer ground in the Chandler Macleod Handicap (1000m) this weekend.

"Looking at her form you'd probably say she was a wet tracker but she was suffering a bit of shin soreness early in her career," Jolly said.

"She won her first start at Murray Bridge on a firm track and she pulled up a bit shin sore and we turned her out.

"Then she had one run and pulled up a bit tender on that and since then we've had no problems so I think it was probably more immaturity."

Jolly knows he has a mare with potential but Saturday should tell him where she can be best placed.

"At this stage what we know about her is that she is quite good in the wet.

"We're not sure about her on the dry 100 per cent but her work has indicated that it's more lack of maturity than not being effective on it.

"But at this stage we're more than happy to roll the dice over there," he said.

In any case, Avoid Lightning is to be set for a step up after her fine showing at Caulfield.

"She'll probably have a fairly lightish sort of summer. She might only have one or two runs then we'll prepare her for the autumn," Jolly said.

"We'll probably prepare her for better races, as in black type where she's a little more down in weight.

"When she ran in the Cockram she'd had about five runs and probably wasn't as good as she had been a couple of runs before.

"I thought it was a pretty brave effort there to do what she did.'

Avoid Lightning will carry top weight of 60kg but there is some good news for her trainer.

"I'm a bit worried about the weight but the barrier (five) might offset it because she'll get a pretty cosy run," he said.