Roger James has a genuine Caulfield Cup chance in Silent Achiever but he could strike even earlier during the Melbourne Racing Club carnival with stablemate Zonza.

Zonza arrived in Melbourne from New Zealand on Sunday night and is an early favourite for the Group Three Snowhite Maintenancee Classic (1600m) on Wednesday.

James has a three-race Melbourne campaign mapped out for the five-year-old daughter of Zabeel, progressing from Wednesday's race to the Group Three Tesio Stakes (1600m) on October 26 and then the Group Two Matriarch Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on the final day of the Melbourne Cup carnival.

Zonza has won four of her 12 starts and run six seconds and a fourth.

The only real blemish on her form card was the Listed Rowley Mile at Hawkesbury in May, won by Mouro, when Zonza finished last of nine.

James said the big crowd at Hawkesbury's stand-alone Saturday meeting got to the mare who was overawed by the occasion, played up in the mounting enclosure and then raced accordingly.

"Everything just got on top of her and she did a Pravda on me. Shockingly," James said.

Pravda held up the start of the 2000 Melbourne Cup when she refused to go on to the track and was a late scratching.

A week after the Hawkesbury disappointment, James took Zonza to Rosehill for the Listed Lord Mayors Cup (2000m) where she ran a game second to a horse which will contest Saturday's Caulfield Cup.

"She ended up in front where she'd never been before and got run down late in the piece by Moriarty," James said.

Zonza scored a first-up win in a 1400m handicap at Te Rapa on October 4 and James said the mare travelled well to Melbourne.

"She arrived over here as good as gold," he said.

Meanwhile, James can't fault Silent Achiever and believes she is a genuine chance in an open Caulfield Cup.

"It's hard to be brimming with confidence unless you've got an Atlantic Jewel or something like that, but I know she's well-placed and has had a good preparation," James said.