Her place in the Golden Slipper is secure but Godolphin filly Antelucan still needs to run well in the Black Opal Stakes to take part in the world's richest two-year-old race.

Antelucan is the early favourite to get her autumn to a level where trainer John O'Shea thinks she belongs in the Group Three race at Canberra on Sunday.

O'Shea had Antelucan heading towards the Blue Diamond Stakes until she met with two lots of interference in a lead-up race.

"We had to change tack there which John was disappointed about because he thought she would have been a live Diamond hope," Godolphin racing manager Jason Walsh said.

Antelucan burst on to the racing scene during last year's Melbourne Cup carnival, winning a Group Three race at Flemington.

The filly banked more than $91,000 for the win, a sum that puts safely into the $3.5 million Golden Slipper at Rosehill on March 21.

"She's got enough money now for the Slipper," Walsh said.

"If she can show us on Sunday what she has been showing at home she'll take her place in the Slipper as well."

James McDonald rides Antelucan with High Bowman on the stable's second stringer Chamarel.

Antelucan has a favouritism call over Single Gaze, the Magic Millions placegetter trained on the track by Nick Olive.

A Rosehill winner on debut, Single Gaze will be racing for the first time since finishing third to Le Chef in the Magic Millions.

Leading trainer Peter Moody has the favourite for the Canberra Cup in last-start Melbourne winner Sir John Hawkwood.

Sir John Hawkwood is an imported stayer which was rated good enough to run in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot during his English career.

But the six-year-old hadn't figured in five Australian starts until winning over 2000m at Flemington last month.