Trainer Leon Macdonald expects improvement from Victoria Derby Rebel Raider in Saturday's Randwick Guineas but believes the 1600 metres may still be too short against the likes of Mic Mac and Youthful Jack.Rebel Raider finished last of the 13 runners in the Hobartville Stakes on February 28 in which Mic Mac maintained his unbeaten sequence to take his record to five wins from five starts.Greg Eurell has some concerns over a possible wet track for Mic Mac while Rebel Raider is also untested in wo

Trainer Leon Macdonald expects improvement from Victoria Derby Rebel Raider in Saturday's Randwick Guineas but believes the 1600 metres may still be too short against the likes of Mic Mac and Youthful Jack.

Rebel Raider finished last of the 13 runners in the Hobartville Stakes on February 28 in which Mic Mac maintained his unbeaten sequence to take his record to five wins from five starts.

Greg Eurell has some concerns over a possible wet track for Mic Mac while Rebel Raider is also untested in worse than dead ground.

While Youthful Jack is untried over further than the 1400 metres of the Hobartville in which he finished fourth, he is three from three on slow tracks.

"I still think the 1600 might be too short for Rebel Raider," Macdonald said.

"He is a stayer and he is racing like a stayer and probably wants more ground than he is getting on Saturday.

"And I don't know how he will go if the track is wet.

"Those horses who were in the race last time look very hard to beat again."

Rebel Raider was among the 67 entries taken for the Sydney Cup (3200m) but whether he goes that far remains to be seen.

"If he wins the Derby, then we'll take it from there," Macdonald said.

Australian Guineas winner Heart Of Dreams is also among the Randwick Guineas nominations but is not expected to back up while stablemates Caymans and Desuetude, second and third in the Hobartville, will take their places along with another Darley runner Sousa.

Metropolitan Handicap winner Newport will resume his Sydney Cup campaign in the Randwick City Stakes (2000m) after a minor hiccup at the start of Saturday's Chipping Norton Stakes.

When the gates opened, Newport took a sidestep to the left and jockey Jay Ford took a fall to the right.

Both were unscathed but six-year-old Newport, a veteran of 39 racetrack appearances, was sent back to the barrier trials.

He passed the test at Newcastle on Tuesday when he came out of an outside gate to run sixth of seven over 800 metres.

The Anthony Cummings-trained Wittgenstein will also run in the Randwick City Stakes as he steps up his preparation aimed at joining stablemate Zavite in the Sydney Cup (3200m) on April 25.

Zavite added Monday's Adelaide Cup to his Launceston Cup win of last month and Cummings believes Wittgenstein can continue to make his way up the ranks.

"He has produced some very good form this preparation and I expect him to be in the mix again on Saturday," Cummings said.

Of the 14 entries for the Randwick Stakes, 10 are entered for the Sydney Cup.