Chris Waller has an inkling the form surrounding the least fancied of his three Ranvet Stakes runners might be the best guide to the outcome of the $400,000 weight-for-age race at Rosehill on Saturday.
Waller expects Kelinni and Gatewood to turn in the right BMW trials but it is Foreteller, a $21 chance, who provides the Rosehill trainer with an insight into his horses' main threat in the Group One over 2000m.
His thinking is based on the inclusion of Fiveandahalfstar, the three-year-old who finished second to Super Cool in the Australian Cup where Foreteller wound up midfield.
"Fiveandahalfstar is the benchmark because he is coming out of a harder field in the Australian Cup," Waller said.
"It was certainly a touch harder and he really toughed it out."
Nevertheless, Waller expects to figure somewhere in the Ranvet, especially with Kelinni and Gatewood as he stretches their trip out to a middle distance for the first time during their autumn campaigns.
"They need to be showing something to suggest they are good chances, winning chances in the BMW," he said.
Kelinni and Gatewood are stepping up from acceptable runs in the Group One Chipping Norton Stakes, a race won by stablemate Shoot Out.
"They ran pass races," Waller said. "Ideally I would have liked them to have been charging to the line but their first-up run in the Apollo Stakes was on a very heavy track and it may have flattened them."
Kelinni and Gatewood are $16 and $18 chances respectively as latest betting has Fiveandahalfstar a clear $2.80 Ranvet favourite over New Zealand mare Silent Achiever.
Asked for his preference of the trio, Waller said: "It's hard to split them.
"Kelinni did a great job in the Melbourne Cup, Gatewood has a good turn of foot and he's a Royal Ascot winner and Foreteller is a Group Two winner."