Irish Derby winner Latrobe will battle Saturday's VRC Derby winner Extra Brut in the Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington.
It is the first time the VRC Derby winner has backed up in the weight-for-age classic in the same year with the opportunity only arising after the raced was moved to the final Saturday of the Flemington carnival in 2016.
The previous two VRC Derby winners Ace High (2017) and Prized Icon (2016) were sent for a spell immediately after their wins in the three-year-old classic.
Ace High ran in Tuesday's Melbourne Cup and Prized Icon, who has not won a race since her Derby win, will also run in the Mackinnon Stakes on Saturday.
Latrobe, who arrived in January 2015, eight months before Extra Brut was born in September 2015, is trained by last year's Melbourne Cup winning trainer Joseph O'Brien.
Team Williams owns the horse and the decision was made early in her campaign to bypass the Melbourne Cup in preference for the Mackinnon Stakes as connections did not believe Latrobe was ready for the Cup.
Extra Brut has won three of his four runs this campaign with the only failure coming in the Norman Robinson Stakes when conditions didn't suit.
The duo will need to be at their best to win the race after Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby declared pre-race favourite Blair House the horse to beat on Saturday as 'The Blue Army' attempts to grab their fourth group 1 win of the spring carnival.
Their drought-breaking Melbourne Cup win with the Appleby-trained Cross Counter came after the Saeed Bin Suroor-trained pair Best Solution and Benbatl won the Caulfield Cup and Caulfield Stakes respectively.
Benbatl nosed out Blair House in the Caulfield Stakes but Appleby decided to avoid champion mare Winx in the Cox Plate, a decision be now claims was wise.
"Benbatl franked that form by finishing second to Winx," Appleby said.
"He is in great order. If he turns up in the form he was in the Caulfield Stakes I think they have got him to beat."
The Mackinnon Stakes favourites don't have a great recent record in the race with So You Think's win in 2010 making him the most recent short priced runner to win the race.
The James Cummings-trained It's Somewhat will also represent the Godolphin stable in the race with Cummings rating the eight-year-old who finished third in last year's Mackinnon Stakes a strong place chance.
"We have got him nice and fit but he is going to have to go to another level to be beating Charlie's horse [Blair House]," Cummings said.
"He is not without a chance of running top four."
One of Blair House's main dangers is the Chris Waller-trained Shillelagh who steps out to 2000 metres for the first time, after proving herself to be among Australia's best 1600-metre horses in winning the Kennedy Mile on Derby Day.
After Saturday's race Waller indicated his desire to push the seven-year-old out to 2000 metres and he has not wasted any time in placing her in the weight-for-age Mackinnon Stakes.
"She just loves Flemington," Waller said on Saturday.
David Hayes, who won the 1990 Mackinnon Stakes with Better Loosen Up, decided to run Mickey Blue Eyes despite the three-year-old finishing 10th in the VRC Derby.
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