Matamata trainer Ken Kelso hopes the Telegraph Handicap at Trentham will be the springboard to a Sydney campaign in autumn for his class mare Xanadu.

The Group One 1200m sprint will be the first race for the Elusive City four-year-old since October, when she finished fourth in the Hastings Spring Classic (2000m) behind Shez Sinsational.

The mare is rated second favourite for the race behind Burgundy and Kelso says she's ready to run a big race.

"She just had two exhibition gallops, but sometimes they can be better than trials because you can do what you want to do," he told NZ Newswire.

"She's bigger and stronger and benefited from the break, and she's ready. You don't go into a Group One race needing the run."

Xanadu's best form has been at 1400m and 1600m but Kelso said the Telegraph, run from Trentham's 1200m chute, is often won by horses who excel at 1400m.

Xanadu then will head to the Waikato Sprint (1400m) on February 9 before Kelso looks at two Group One races at Rosehill for fillies and mares, the Coolmore Classic (1500m) on March 23 and the Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1500m) on April 6.

"I also threw a nomination in for the Doncaster the other day just to see where we end up, but she'd probably have to win one of those for us to go to the Doncaster."

Kelso said Xanadu's spring form in Hastings suggests she should be up to the class, particularly the Makfi Challenge Stakes, in which she ran second.

"She would have won that day if Ocean Park hadn't got a great run on the fence," he said.

"The form around Ocean Park, Fleur de Lune and Guiseppina is strong so you have to rate her highly."

Burgundy and last year's Telegraph winner Guiseppina are the only other runners bar Xanadu rated under double figures for Saturday's race by the NZ TAB.