Jumping from maiden grade hasn't been an issue for recent winners of Saturday's Listed McKenzie Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley.
The last three McKenzie Stakes winners competed in maiden races before winning the McKenzie Stakes with Ken's Dream (2016), Rich Enuff (2015) and Well Sprung (2014) all handling the leap from maiden grade to score at Listed level in the Moonee Valley feature.
Caulfield trainer Ciaron Maher will attempt to perform a similar feat with All Too Royal, who was a strong first-up winner in a Bairnsdale maiden on August 10.
"We took him up to Bairnsdale and he was quite dominant from the good draw and he travelled up and hit the line well," Maher said.
All Too Royal will skip a few grades to tackle the McKenzie Stakes but the colt booked his place in the field when he pleased the Maher stable with his work at Moonee Valley on Tuesday morning.
Clocker Darryl Sherer noted All Too Royal worked over 800m with stablemate Fox Swift, who is nominated for a three-year-old fillies' race at Moonee Valley, covering the trip in 52.22 seconds and running home their last 400m in 24.72.
"He went to the Valley and worked quite well so we'll accept and have a look at the race and most likely line up on Saturday," Maher said.
"He was showing us enough as a two-year-old and he's furnished a bit mentally but he's always had the ability.
"You expect him to come on from his maiden and there were quite a few good colts that went around in the Vain (Stakes) so it's sort of an in-between race."
Maher will adopt a similar accept-and-see strategy with Fox Swift, who headed to Moe to break her maiden on August 5 after a pair of good runs to start her career at Wangaratta and Caulfield.
"I looked at the entries yesterday and it does look fairly hot but she's always shown ability," Maher said.
"She had a little freshen up after her maiden win leading into Saturday and her work was sharp this morning.
"Whether she's up to some of these, we'll see, but she's progressive."
