Clarry Conners says it’s a ‘privilege’ to be asked to train a blueblood like The Hawkesbury and is confident the filly can do enough at her namesake course on Wednesday to force her way into the Group 1 Surround Stakes.

Three-year-old filly The Hawkesbury, a daughter of two champions, is arguably the most interesting galloper racing at Saturday’s Newcastle race meeting.

Trainer Michael Freedman has long said Mumbai Muse would be a major player in the autumn, even before she notched successive stakes wins last spring, and on the evidence of her first appearance for 2024 the filly will be just that.

More than a thousand horses will line up all around Australia on Tuesday but perhaps the best bred filly in the country will be making her highly-anticipated debut at Kembla Grange.