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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Nathan Doyle is banking on the break in the rain serving up an improving Warwick Farm track on Monday to allow stablemates Café Royal and Dalaalaat to produce their best.

While the former is coming off a heavy track win, the latter struggled to get his footing in trying ground at his last start but Doyle said both should get conditions to suit in the Fujitsu General Handicap (1300m) if the forecast is correct.

After a couple of below par efforts in the summer, the Newcastle trainer puts Café Royal’s last start heavy track win at Canterbury down to a gear change and the chance to ride her in an ambushing fashion rather than on speed.

“We reset and went again, trialled her up at home,’’ he said.

“We took the concussion plates off her after she disappointed (at Randwick in February), maybe they were holding her back in the wet conditions.

“She gets through it, which a lot of horses can’t, but I think she’s better on a bit better surface.

Café Royal wins at Canterbury on March 30

“Maybe we found a different way to ride her with a bit of cover instead of being one dimensional and being the bunny all the time.”

The mare rises 3kg, even after the 2kg claim for Tyler Schiller, on her Canterbury win but Monday’s race is restricted to five-year-olds and over.

Doyle said he’s confident Café Royal can work through a grade or two now the carnival is over if she can keep her confidence up.

“I think she can take that step up to benchmark 78 grade, if we can get her back to ger best she can compete at Saturday level,’’ he said.

Dalaalaat showed he could be in for a solid preparation when he resumed with an eye-catching third in a Midway at Rosehill on March 12 but two weeks later he wasn’t the same horse on a saturated track.

That was the day that seven of the 10 races at Rosehill were transferred to Newcastle after a downpour made the track unsafe so Doyle said he has to be forgiving.

“That was bottomless that day, his wheels were spinning when the gates opened,’’ he said.

“I would love the track to get back to the heavy 8/soft 7 range and if he can get that better surface he can bounce back.

“James (McDonald) said to put a line through it and forget he went around so we freshened him up a bit and just hoping for a better track.”

Meanwhile, Doyle said unbeaten mare Norwegian Bliss came through her first-up win at Hawkesbury well and is tossing up which race on the Hawkesbury stand alone meeting on April 30 to run her in - stay in benchmark grade for one more run or tackle the Group 3 Hawkesbury Crown.

All the fields, form and replays for Monday’s Warwick Farm meeting