Trainer Brian Mayfield-Smith is content for Maybe Better to miss the Caulfield Cup and put all his energy into running in his second Melbourne Cup next month.Maybe Better, along with last Saturday's Turnbull Stakes third placegetter Zipping and last year's Turnbull winner Devil Moon, was a notable absentee from the list of third acceptors declared for the Caulfield Cup.Mayfield-Smith said Maybe Better would have his two Melbourne Cup lead-up runs in Saturday's Group Two Winning Edge Presentation

Trainer Brian Mayfield-Smith is content for Maybe Better to miss the Caulfield Cup and put all his energy into running in his second Melbourne Cup next month.

Maybe Better, along with last Saturday's Turnbull Stakes third placegetter Zipping and last year's Turnbull winner Devil Moon, was a notable absentee from the list of third acceptors declared for the Caulfield Cup.

Mayfield-Smith said Maybe Better would have his two Melbourne Cup lead-up runs in Saturday's Group Two Winning Edge Presentations Stakes (2400m) at Caulfield and the Moonee Valley Cup (2500m) on October 27.

"I have just aimed him solely at the Melbourne Cup," Mayfield-Smith said.

Maybe Better won the 2006 Saab Quality (2500m) before finishing third in the Melbourne Cup behind the Japanese stablemates Delta Blues and Pop Rock.

Last year he finished ninth in the Caulfield Cup and seventh in the Mackinnon Stakes but was a late scratching from the Cup three days later when he was found to be sore in a foreleg just hours before the race.

Mayfield-Smith is carefully timing Maybe Better's program away from the best horses to have him at his peak for this year's Cup.

"The Caulfield Cup is a hard, tough race and can take a bit of a toll on horses so I wanted to avoid that with him," Mayfield-Smith said.

"I just want to step up nicely to the Melbourne Cup."

Mayfield-Smith said he was happy with Maybe Better's three runs this campaign which included a close fifth to Guillotine in the Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes (1600m) and last-start eighth to Cefalu in JRA Cup (2040m) at Moonee Valley.

"In the JRA Cup he had 59kg on a leader-biased track and without being a brilliant run, it was a good solid effort," Mayfield-Smith said.

He said the Winning Edge would improve the six-year-old significantly.

"He's still not quite ready yet," Mayfield-Smith said.

"If he won the Winning Edge it wouldn't surprise me, but this is the run that will bring him on."

Maybe Better and Devil Moon were relative outsiders in the Caulfield Cup but the market has tightened at the top end with Zipping, formerly an $8 chance with Michael Eskander's Betstar, now out of the race.

Littorio remains the favourite after his Turnbull win and is in from $5 to $4.60 while Weekend Hussler has tightened from $6 to $5 and last year's winner and Turnbull runner-up Master O'Reilly in from $9 to $8.

Guillotine continued to firm, from $13 in to $10.

All the main chances, including Zipping, remained after third declarations for the Cox Plate and second declarations for the Melbourne Cup.

Princess Coup and Weekend Hussler are $4.20 equal favourites for the Cox Plate ahead of Samantha Miss ($5.50).

The top line of betting for the Melbourne Cup is shared by last year's winner Efficient, Littorio and international stayer Septimus, all at $7.

There are 36 horses remaining in the Caulfield Cup, 33 in the Cox Plate and 85 in the Melbourne Cup.