Lasqueti Spirit returns to racing at Hawkesbury on Thursday but the mare is unlikely to return to her unusual front-running tactics, which won her last spring's VRC Oaks and saw her placed second to Winx at Group 1 level in the autumn.

The mare's trainer Lee Curtis said on Wednesday that the stable intended on riding her a little quieter this campaign after she broke up a number of elite fields last autumn with her dash from the barriers.

"I don't know if we'll be going out with tearaway tactics this time," Curtis said. "I think we'll put her up handy and see what happens.

"When she went forward, we made her go forward because she is so one-paced.

"If you let her settle, she'd probably settle closer to last than first so rather than giving her an almighty push we might just be giving her a lesser push to go forward (from the barriers)."

Brenton Avdulla, who partnered Lasqueti Spirit to that all-the-way VRC Oaks win at Flemington last spring as a 100/1 outsider, will reunite with the mare in Thursday's Listed Rowley Mile at Hawkesbury.

Curtis said he was not going to Hawkesbury expecting to pick up a large part of the $150,000 prizemoney on offer, but said the race was an important one for her with some Group 1 staying tests in mind later this spring in Sydney and then Melbourne.

He said Lasqueti Spirit has taken a little time to switch on this campaign.

"I was probably a little bit disappointed in her first trial although we did find some improvement in her second," he said.

"We will use this run as a stepping stone - she obviously wants further - but as I said I wasn't happy with her first trial but she has switched on nicely since then.

"Her work since the second trial has been good and she's quite bright so while we obviously don't think we can win this race, we are confident we can use it as a stepping stone to go forward."

Curtis said the G1 $750,000 Metropolitan over 2400 metres at Randwick on September 30 was the mare's first goal this spring.