If you love to see the best taking on the best, you might be rolling your eyes again this Saturday with the $2.5 million Group 1 weight-for-age Australian Cup (2000m) up against the $1.5 million Group 1 weight-for-age Tancred Stakes (2400m).

Luckily both races this year feature storylines compelling enough to mitigate any dilution of quality the clash has caused.

The 2023 decision to move the Australian Cup back by three weeks was intended to give middle-distance horses who run in the All-Star Mile a logical option a fortnight later.

Both times since, the cup has been won by Cascadian, coming off an All-Star Mile placing. Last year’s Australian Cup attracted the entire All-Star Mile trifecta, Cascadian joined by Pride Of Jenni and Mr Brightside.

The All-Star Mile representation this Saturday is thinner — Light Infantry Man (third) and Atishu (fifth). The story is provided by comeback mare Pride Of Jenni, fresh from silencing her many doubters.

The Tancred meanwhile has changed complexion since the old days, when the luxury car makes swapped naming rights and it was the weight-for-age pinnacle of the Sydney autumn.

Since the introduction of the Championships in 2014, that title has belonged to the Queen Elizabeth, run two weeks later over 2000 metres.

This Saturday’s Tancred is worth $800,000 less than it was in 2013. That year’s winner was Fiveandahalfstar, the 10th locally bred horse to win it in the space of 15 years.

With the Tancred now something of a Sydney Cup lead-up, the only Aussie-breds to win it in the Championships era have been Jameka (2017) and Duais (2022).

Sure enough, the story this Saturday revolves around two European-breds — Vauban, who’s played Lucy with the football for favourite-backers in successive Melbourne Cups, and globetrotting star Dubai Honour, unbeaten in Australia from two Group 1 starts over 2000 metres.