The Melbourne Cup dream appears likely to win out over a Sydney Cup start for Outback Joe.
The Nigel Blackiston-trained stayer won Monday's Adelaide Cup and the trainer says the son of 1991 Melbourne Cup winner Let's Elope will likely head for a spell with a view to the spring.
It would leave a grand-daughter of Let's Elope, four-year-old Let's Make Adeal, as Blackiston's Sydney Cup hope.
Blackiston said he would talk to Outback Joe's owner Dennis Marks about what to do with the gelding.
"We've got Let's Make Adeal, the grand-daughter of Let's Elope, heading that way (to the Sydney Cup)," Blackiston told Melbourne radio station RSN on Tuesday.
"If he's pulled up OK, I'll talk to Dennis over the next couple of days. We might actually just give him a spell. I think the horse has done a great job.
"He's not a big, robust horse. I think he's going to have a nice break now and get ready for spring."
Blackiston said it was the owner's dream to have a son or daughter of the champion mare Let's Elope in the Melbourne Cup.
Let's Make Adeal, who finished seventh in Saturday's Australian Cup, and Outback Joe are at $26 in Sydney Cup betting.