A city win for the lightly raced Ward would be the icing on the cake for his owner Ken Ely and trainer David Vandyke.

Ely bought Ward out of a Lloyd Williams reduction sale and the five-year-old was transferred to Vandyke when former trainer Graeme Rogerson closed his Sydney operation.

He will have his third start for Vandyke in Saturday's Australian Turf Club (2000m) at Rosehill having fulfilled his obligations on December 6 with victory in the Mudgee Cup.

"This is a big step up so it's a bit unknown," Vandyke said.

"Our ambitions with him were to win the Mudgee Cup. He's done that so anything else is a bonus.

"He's earned the chance. We took the blinkers off him for Mudgee and got to the line really strongly.

"He is a horse who has had a few issues but he's done a great job with me."

All four of Ward's wins have been out of town with a third at Canterbury in May his best metropolitan effort.

The field for Saturday's race has been reduced to six with the scratching of Rule Book.

The Chris Waller-trained Pentometer is the early favourite at $3.10 with Ward an $8 chance.

Ely is also a shareholder in the former Rogerson-trained Fulminate, a controversial second behind Darci Drama at Canterbury last Friday as favourite.

Vandyke and stewards were critical of Hugh Bowman's tactics when he got further back than expected.

The trainer said Fulminate would run over 1600 metres at Randwick on Boxing Day with Kathy O'Hara to ride.