A strenuous year has taken a toll on quality stayer Sertorius who will be aimed at lesser Group One targets next time around.

Co-trainer Jamie Edwards said he and his co-trainer Bruce Elkington would target the Brisbane winter carnival in the hope of avoiding the top horses.

Edwards said the idea behind the gelding's past two campaigns had been to run in the best company in the big races, but he came to the realisation Sertorius was around three lengths off the best horses.

He said four runs in five weeks including the Sydney Cup on a wet track in the autumn had flattened Sertorius who finished third in that Group One.

Sertorius was given a four week spell between the spring of 2013 and last autumn followed by a five week break after his autumn campaign in Sydney.

It was not enough to rejuvenate the gelding who raced below expectations in the spring.

"He didn't have that turn of foot that he normally has," Edwards said.

"He raced in the Geelong Cup and raced well below par, so to the owner's credit he let me put the horse in the paddock.

"That's a pretty hard thing to do when you've got a chance of running in the Melbourne Cup, irrespective of how the horse is going."

With that in mind, Brisbane is the option.

"We've looked at what are the lesser grade Group One races this horse could run in and it's probably the Brisbane winter carnival," Edwards said.

"We'll let him have a really good break and then we might take him up to Queensland for the Hollindale Cup, the Doomben Cup and those sorts of races.

"They're the second tier of Group One races and rather than going back to Sydney and running really good fourths, which is all well and good, we're in the game to win."