While Chris Waller, the Snowdens and Godolphin are expected to dominate in Sydney, the situation in Melbourne might be a little more open.

The resurgent David Hayes stable, which is running second - albeit at a respectable distance to the all-conquering Darren Weir on the trainers' premiership - is hoping that while it might not be able to match Weir for quantity, it can do for quality.

Chief among its candidates for autumn glory is the tough and consistent three-year-old Seaburge, who showed with a busy spring campaign that he was not far off the best of his generation.

The son of Sebring was a group 2 winner of the Sires Produce Stakes at Flemington as a two-year-old. He showed that he was well-suited to middle distances even at this early stage of his career with a second  (beaten less than a length) in the Caulfield Guineas to Divine Prophet and another second in the Emirates Stakes over 2000 metres on the final day of the Flemington carnival.

That was a particularly meritorious run as he was a three-year-old taking on the older gallopers and he beat home all bar Awesome Rock, with  Epsom winner Hauraki and French raider Vadamos in his wake.

Seaburge is likely to be seen first-up at Caulfield in the Autumn Stakes, and will then try to win the race named after his trainer's father, the C.S. Hayes Stakes, en route to the Australian Guineas. The Australian Cup, over the same course and distance of the Mackinnon Stakes, might be a later target while a trip on the float  to the Sydney carnival might also be an option.

"He's come back well, he looks great," said Hayes' training partner Tom Dabernig. "He will go for the C.S. Hayes Stakes. He will look to the Australian Guineas and then probably look to Sydney ... his best run was probably here over 2000 so we will just keep stepping him up.

"David would love to win the C.S. Hayes. I don't think we have ever won it. it was pretty tough presenting the trophy to Darren Weir," Dabernig joked.

"[Seaburge] is an athletic horse, he's not a big solid horse, but he looks a million bucks. He's very Criterion looking, very similar."

Seaburge flies the flag for the Hayes three-year-olds, but the stable also has a progressive older type in He's Our Rokki, who  won the  group 1 Toorak Handicap at Caulfield in  a run of five metropolitan wins in a row. They included two  at group 3 level during the Sydney autumn.

"He is in the C.F. Orr and then the Futurity," said Dabernig, nominating two of the February highlights in Melbourne. "He's a good Caulfield horse, he's in great order and doing well."

He's Our Rokki had been up for a long time before his post-spring break (he finished up by running down the track in the group 1 Cantala Stakes at Flemington on Derby day) so the break  since has done him good, Dabernig said.

"For him it wasn't a bad spell, because his spell before that was only a couple of weeks when we got back from Perth [where he ran in the WA Guineas in November of 2015] and we never really had a long break. He's a good tough gelding, he has still got a bit ahead of him.

"He would go into the Orr first-up. Then later it will be Sydney for him. He won two there last year. He's won over 2000 metres [which gives plenty of options for future targets]. We will probably keep him short in those first couple and then look at where he is. It depends what Winx and those other horses are doing.

"He could be a Doncaster horse, but you have got to just judge what's around at the time and what's going into those races.

"Certainly if he could win an Orr or a Futurity you would be mad not to have a go at it."

Plans are also being put in place for last season's Newmarket Handicap winner The Quarterback, who might also be aimed at a rich sprint in Dubai during the World Cup carnival in late March.

The six-year-old gelding became trainer Robbie Griffiths' first group 1 winner when he scored in the famous 1200-metre race down the Flemington straight last March, and he will be aiming for a repeat this year.

Before that he is set to step out in the Black Caviar Lightning over 1000 metres at the same venue. Depending on how things go he will  then be routed towards the Middle East or have a run in Sydney, probably in the T.J. Smith Stakes.

Don Healy, Griffiths' racing manager, said on Saturday that  The Quarterback was right on track.

"He's progressing along nicely. His first run will be in the Lightning. At this stage he will probably only have three races - the Lightning, the Newmarket and we are not sure of the third one ... maybe Dubai, it's now 1200 metres and its worth a million dollars. It's changed [since 2016, when the 1000-metre event was won by Australian sprinter Buffering].

"The T.J. Smith is on the agenda,  but I don't think it could be as well as. Either or, one of the two."