An autumn campaign is back on the agenda for impressive debut Caulfield winner Of The Brave.

The Mark Riley-trained youngster was injured in a paddock accident not long after his win in the Listed Debutant Stakes (1000m) on October 11 and the chances of him racing in the autumn looked slim.

But Riley inspected the son of Starspangledbanner on Friday and was pleasantly surprised with how he had overcome his injury and he will return to work on Monday.

Of The Brave suffered a puncture wound to a foreleg above the knee and Riley was at a loss to explain how the injury occurred.

"We couldn't find anything to say how it happened," Riley said.

"He ended up with a puncture wound above the knee. There was no structural damage, just a hole.

"A couple of weeks ago he was flat out getting around the paddock and on Friday I had trouble catching him."

While Riley hopes to have Of The Brave ready for the Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield at the end of February, he said he would have no hesitation in turning the colt out for another break if he was not happy with him.

"We'll bring him in, make sure everything is right with him and if everything is all right we'll continue on to the Blue Diamond if possible," Riley said.

Riley said Of The Brave had put on weight and grown and if all went according to plan he would have a trial in around seven weeks.

As long as he came through that, he would trial again three weeks later before contesting a Blue Diamond Prelude on Australia Day at Sandown.

After his win, the trainer declared the colt could turn out to be the best horse he had trained.

He is one of a small southern hemisphere first crop by the sub-fertile Starspangledbanner, a multiple Group One winner who raced in Australia under Leon Corstens and in Europe for Aidan O'Brien.

From limited numbers of foals, Starspangledbanner has already produced a Group One winner in The Wow Signal who claimed the Prix Morny in August.