This time last year Whobegotyou was being hailed as the next great weight-for-age star of Australian racing.

The Mark Kavanagh-trained gelding had resumed with a second in the Liston Stakes and was expected to deliver on the promise he showed the previous season when he unleashed one of the most dominant performances in Caulfield Guineas history.

But like the horse who carried the same hopes and dreams of racing fans 12 months earlier - Weekend Hussler - after victory in one of the Group 1 lead-ups, he failed in his Grand Final.

Whobegotyou battled home sixth in the Cox Plate, when sent out the $2.80 favourite.

This Saturday, as the countdown to the 2010 spring majors continues, the horse affectionately known as "Whobe" will resume amid little fanfare in the $200,000 Memsie Stakes at Caulfield.

It will be his first outing since the Stradbroke Handicap in June, when he finished in the second half of the field after being severely galloped on.

It continued a frustrating run for the son of Street Cry, who has had only two runs since the Cox Plate.

He started favourite in the Stradbroke, as he did at his final four runs of last spring, but will have at least three horses ahead of him in the betting in Saturday's race.

Shoot Out, Typhoon Tracy and So You Think will all be more highly-fancied in the 1400-metre Memsie, emphasising how unforgiving punters can be.

That's despite the five-year-old never finishing further back than second in five starts when resuming from a spell of at least 10 weeks.

After a debut win on the Geelong artificial track he finished second in the Group 3 McNeil Stakes as a spring three-year-old, was narrowly beaten against the older horses six months later before last year's Liston second.

His most recent first-up run was a slashing second to Hot Danish in the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 on May 29 this year.

But he will go around each-way odds in the Group 2 Memsie, the first start in a campaign aimed at Cox Plate redemption.

With the late finish to last season and mistakes learned from last spring, Kavanagh is embarking on a different path towards Australasia's weight-for-age championship.

It could prove a masterstroke with the Memsie a stunning guide to the Cox Plate in the past decade. Six times in the past 10 years the Cox Plate winner has come through the Memsie.

Sunline (2000), Northerly (2002), Makybe Diva (2005), Fields Of Omagh (2006), El Segundo (2007) and Maldivian (2008) all contested the Memsie en route to Moonee Valley glory.

While they are favourable stats for Whobegotyou, they are also good for his more fancied rivals this weekend.

The $3 million Cox Plate is also the main spring aim for Shoot Out, Typhoon Tracy and So You Think, who occupy three of the top four lines in betting for the October 23 feature.

Shoot Out will be out to continue a fairytale spring that has already netted wins in the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes and Group 2 Liston Stakes, while Horse of the Year favourite Typhoon Tracy and defending Cox Plate champion So You Think are resuming.

The Bart Cummings-trained So You Think will run after being scratched from the Liston owing to the wet track, while Peter Moody's Typhoon Tracy will be seen for the first time since her Doncaster Mile flop.

Melbourne Cup favourite Faint Perfume, Caulfield Cup fancy Zabravsive, BMW winner Littorio, progressive mare Valdemoro and spring regular Master O'Reilly are others also resuming in the Memsie.

Precisely who punters place their faith in will be significant with seven of the past 10 Memsie winners starting favourite.

In sobering news for those who fancy an upset, never in the past 15 years has the Memsie been won by a horse at double-figure odds. The longest-priced winner in that time was Island Morn at $9 in 1995.

(Brad Bishop is an award-winning writer in both equine codes. He has also worked in the media unit at both Racing Victoria Ltd and Harness Racing Victoria).