Nature Strip (Image: Racing Photos)
The Dato' Tan Chin Nam Stakes, or the John F. Feehan Stakes as it was formerly known, has long been a feature of The Valley's first meeting of spring.
The weight-for-age Group 2 over 1600 metres carries a free pass through to the Cox Plate, which this year carries $5 million in stakes, and has proven a handy guide to the country's WFA championship.
Strawberry Road, Rubiton, Our Poetic Prince, Better Loosen Up, Sunline, Northerly and El Segundo have completed the double in the past 35 years, while Makybe Diva, Fields Of Omagh and Maldivian are other recent Cox Plate winners to have come through it.
But it no longer has automatic top-billing as the most anticipated race of the day.
A date swap with the Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) and falling between that event and the Memsie Stakes (1400m), now both Group 1 events, has resulted in it attracting a different type of horse to a decade ago, while a support race on the same card has grown markedly in that time.
This year will be the 10th that the $300,000 Dato' has been accompanied by the $200,000 McEwen Stakes, which has been a G2 since 2013.
This year it contains one of the most talked-about horses in the country - Nature Strip - who will ensure it is the most watched race of the day.
Saturday's race is just another example of the flow-on effects to the early-season races, not only in Sydney but also Melbourne, from The Everest.
A key factor in Nature Strip running at The Valley is his need to lock down a spot in the $13m event, which will be run at Randwick on October 13.
The four-year-old has won three on end since joining Darren Weir, including a last-start six-length spanking of Magic Millions winner Sunlight in the Listed Lightning Stakes at Morphettville, but remains without a spot in the race.
A measure of his talent might be that BetEasy posted him the raging $1.50 favourite in the McEwen over triple G1 winner Shoals ($4.60), who already has an Everest berth.
That perhaps also underlines the different approaches the trainers have to take to the preparations.
Weir has to keep Nature Strip up and winning to impress, while Anthony Freedman does not need to be as aggressive early in the preparation with Shoals, safe in the knowledge she's got a spot.
Last year's Magic Millions winner Houtzen ($8.50), the zippy Quillista ($11) and G2 winner Viridine ($14) are among the support cast, which has the McEwen well-placed to build on its record of throwing subsequent Group 1 winners.
Nicconi, Hay List, Buffering, Bel Sprinter, Chautauqua and Russian Revolution are among those to have won since it took up its current date.
The Dato', it should be said, still remains a key spring pointer even though it has been 10 years since it produced a Cox Plate winner.
The past two winners - Awesome Rock and Bonneval - won G1s later in the campaign, while Fiorente, who won the year before The Cleaner's back-to-back wins in 2014/15, won the 2013 Melbourne Cup.
He joined Rising Fast as the only horses to complete the Dato'/Melbourne Cup double, but followed Rogan Josh, Makybe Diva (twice), Efficient and Green Moon as horses to use the Dato' as a stepping stone to Melbourne Cup success in the past two decades.
Jameka became the first horse to springboard off it to Caulfield Cup success in more than 35 years in 2016, which only enhances its new-found status as a key Cups reference.
With Bonneval, a rising star in Night's Watch, G1-winning four-year-old Hiyaam, Japanese recruit Ambitious, Odeon and Homesman - appearing more Cups hopes than Cox Plate contenders - among those engaged on Saturday, that could be solidified this year.