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.

The daughter of Frankel and More Joyous holds several Group 1 nominations through the autumn and Conners said the Clarendon Tavern Handicap (1300m) might only be a benchmark 64 but it’s an important stepping stone.

“I was privileged to have her, I’m very thankful to have a horse of her breeding and the responsibility of looking after a horse of her value comes into thought too,” Conners said.

“She shows a lot of promise.

“I’m going there thinking that she can win and she’ll run in the Surround then and go through the normal fillies campaign.”

The Hawkesbury made an impressive debut on a heavy track at Kembla Grange back in November, scoring by 3½ lengths.

Conners then elected to give her a break and she returned at Newcastle on February 3 as a short-priced favourite and went down by half a length in a performance the trainer said he can forgive.

“Kembla was soft and Newcastle was very hard, it went against her a bit being a big filly,” he said.

“She was going to beat them and just didn’t like the hard track.”