Gerald Ryan doesn't have a runner in the Manikato Stakes but he will have a keen interest in the result.

A victory by Buffering in the Group One sprint would be a boost for the trainer who puts the polish on his close relation Brazen Moss.

Both gallopers are by Mossman and Buffering's dam Action Annie is the granddam of Brazen Moss, making the pair three-quarter brothers.

Brazen Moss will make his debut in Saturday's Men Of League Plate (1100m) at Rosehill but while he has inherited the family's natural speed, he is likely to be ridden quietly from a wide draw.

"We've done both with him, (ridden him) on speed and back. I thought he was pleasing both ways," Ryan said.

"But where he's drawn, if you go forward you're going to be three-wide and working but if we go back and be a bit conservative he'll still hit the line because he did that in his first trial."

Brazen Moss will be joined in Saturday's race by stablemate Lanikai who also hails from a smart sprinting family.

By I Am Invincible, her dam is a half-sister to 2003 Oakleigh Plate winner River Dove but surprisingly the family are not traditionally natural two-year-olds.

Ryan expects Lanikai to fit the same mould, although he has been encouraged by her two trial efforts including a win at her most recent.

"Her first trial was a bit deceiving because she drew the outside and the horse drawn to her inside cannoned into her and shot her off the track, so all of a sudden she was four lengths last," Ryan said.

"She's not a brilliantly quick filly. She's very well related. She's from the River Dove family and they were all backwards at two and I think she will be too," he said.

Ryan has scratched Time For War from the race to run a week later.