On Cox Plate day a year ago, Fiveandahalfstar won a restricted race at Rosehill to set up an improbable but ultimately successful tilt at the Victoria Derby.

Trying to emulate him on Saturday in a benchmark 64 race is the John O'Shea-trained Super Villain while David Payne will gauge the Oaks prospects of Devil Miss and Quayside in the same event.

The Oaks is run on November 7 and Payne believes there is room for his pair to contest the race as long as they handle the 1900m of Saturday's race.

"This is their test and they've got to run well to go to the Oaks," Payne said.

"But the Oaks is a race that can fall apart. Three-year-old fillies at this time of year can go by the wayside pretty quickly and a lot of them don't run the distance.

"Devil Miss is by Dane Shadow which suggests she shouldn't get over ground but she ran third twice over 1800 metres as a two-year-old.

"Quayside ran third to Arabian Gold as a late two-year-old and that form looks good now.

"Her mother (Quays) won a Wakeful so that is encouraging."

Arabian Gold is the reigning Oaks favourite ahead of next week's Wakeful Stakes (2000m) at Flemington.

Payne has been a supporter of the recent initiative to run staying races in Sydney for late two-year-olds to prepare them for the spring, something he became used to in his native South Africa.

"It gives them a good grounding to get ready for the longer races," he said.

At her first attempt at 1800 metres, Devil Miss was third to Drago, Anthony Cummings' Derby hope this year who goes around in Saturday's Vase (2040m) at Moonee Valley as does O'Shea's leading contender Savvy Nature.

The Payne-trained Criterion, runner-up to Derby favourite Complacent in the Spring Champion Stakes will be in his stable while the Vase is run.

"He doesn't need another run before the Derby and will go straight there," Payne said.

Payne, meanwhile, has pulled the pin on the spring campaign of Group One placegetter Honorious who finished eighth in the 2012 Victoria Derby.

The trainer had hoped to pick off one of the lesser races in Melbourne over the spring but decided to send him out now with a view to an autumn and winter campaign.