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Luck deserted imported mare Tamahere when she returned from almost a year off but the Annabel Neasham yard has the fingers crossed for better fortune second-up at Randwick on Saturday.

Assistant trainer Aaron Lau said the Civic Stakes run, where she finished ninth behind Ucalledit, seems to have sparked the six-year-old up so there's every reason to think she can produce her best in the Listed $160,000 Robrick Lodge Winter Stakes (1400m).

Tamahere was a Group 2 winner in the USA early in her career and Lau said there's been notable improvement in the past couple of weeks.

"I don't think her trials were very strong leading up to that run and she's never really been a good worker at home,'' he said.

"We feel like she's come on, she doesn't show you a lot at home but since that run she's picked up."

In the Civic Stakes, Tamahere ($9 with TAB on Friday) settled better than midfield on the fence but when Adam Hyeronimus went looking for runs none materialised and she was basically untested to the line.

She was a significant drifter in betting in that race, starting $31, and Lau said hopefully from another favourable gate the breaks go her way this time with Regan Bayliss taking the ride.

"We thought she would have finished a lot closer, fighting out the finish if she got a bit of room,'' he said.

"She didn't get room at a vital stage in the race. She seems to be thriving, that good draw should help so hopefully she gets clear running and can be in the finish."

Another import Matthew Flinders makes his debut for the Annabel Neasham camp having not raced since October of 2021.

Lau said the six-year-old, a winner up to 2050m, has taken a while to come to hand thus Neasham giving him three trials in the month of June with the latest a significant lift as he ran into third at Canterbury on June 26.

"He's got quite good form in big handicaps in the UK,'' Lau said.

"He had quite a lot of condition on him, so Annabel's taken her time with him and built up that workload.

"We put the blinkers on for that latest trial and he hit the line well. He has a good gate, with a light weight, and it's a nice big track to kick him off at so whatever he does he will improve on."

An eye-catching first-up run has expectations around West Of Africa being hard to beat in the Furphy Handicap (1400m) where he lines up alongside stablemate Token Capitalist.

West Of Africa drew wide and went back before running on to be beaten 2-1/2 lengths by Overriding in a 1300m contest two weeks ago and Lau said a more favourable gate is a plus.

"He got quite far back the other day and was a bit short of room for a little bit,'' he said.

"He seems to have come out of that run in good order and he's drawn a good gate with an in-form jockey on board."

Token Capitalist was a victim of springing out of the gates and being stuck wide when the pace kicked up underneath him in the same event and he weakened to run eighth.

The gelding had raced consistently prior to that and from barrier two it's unlikely he'll find himself stuck three and four wide again.

"It wasn't an ideal run around so he had excuses,'' Lau said.

"He seems to have bounced through it well and he should improve off that first run."