Waywardness wasn't enough to stop Julienas from stamping himself as a Sydney Cup contender with victory in the Listed Sky High Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday.

The Gai Waterhouse-trained import was taken to the front by Nash Rawiller in the early stages of the 1900m event and then asked to increase the tempo from the 700m mark.

Rawiller angled the stayer off the rail as he led the field into the straight before Julienas ($9.50) twice ducked out sharply when he shied during the final stages.

It made no difference to the result as the six-year-old, who was stepping from 1300m to 1900m, had 1-3/4 lengths to spare over Lunayir ($7) with Le Roi ($6) doing his best work late to finish three-quarters-of-a-length away third.

"You can see he's still got a few chinks in his armour. He spotted something there at the furlong and nearly left me on the ground," Rawiller said.

Waterhouse said Julienas was "a real chance" in the Group One Sydney Cup next month and Rawiller agreed.

"He's always been a horse with good ability," Rawiller said.

"Once he gets into a rhythm like that he's terribly hard to beat.

"He's certainly up to Sydney Cup standard."