Trainer John Hawkes is likely to wait another week to unveil Group One-placed New Zealand mare Sardaaj.

Sardaaj is one of the favourites for Saturday's Listed Regal Roller Stakes at Caulfield but the mare has drawn the outside barrier in the capacity field.

"She's a really nice mare but I'm going to suggest to the owners that we don't run her and just wait for next week," Hawkes told Melbourne radio station RSN.

"Just 17 out of 17, it just makes it very difficult."

While not conceding the four-year-old could not win from that barrier, Hawkes doesn't want the mare to have a gut-buster first-up with a long spring ahead.

Sardaaj won two of her four starts in New Zealand and recorded two placings.

She finished second in the Group Two Eight Carat Classic (1600m) on Boxing Day last year and was a close second in her most recent start in January in the Group One Levin Classic (1600m) at Trentham before joining the Hawkes stable.