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Trainer Shane Nichols has had a change of heart and will run first-up winner Streets Of Avalon in the Group 1 C F Orr Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday.

Following Streets Of Avalon 's win in the Group 2 Australia Stakes at The Valley on January 22, Nichols was planning on heading to the Group 1 Futurity Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on February 20, a race the gelding won at weight-for-age last year. 

"We're going to run in the C F Orr Stakes instead," Nichols said. 

"It looks like it's dropped away a bit and the Futurity Stakes, everyone looks as though they are wanting to go there. 

"So, we'll go to the C F Orr and then assess where we go to after that." 

After a moderate late winter and spring preparation that netted Streets Of Avalon just one placing in an eight-start campaign, Nichols said the six-year-old had come out of his first-up win unbelievably well. 

"He's bouncing. He came out of the Australia Stakes far better than he went into it," Nichols said. 

"He's poked along since. He'll have a gallop on Tuesday, but he was forward to run in the Australia Stakes, so it is just maintenance stuff into the C F Orr." 

Nichols said Melbourne's final Group 1 race of the 2020/21 season, the William Reid Stakes (1200m) at The Valley on March 19 could see out Streets Of Avalon's autumn campaign. 

"It looks like a race that could soften up a bit, just with the way the calendar works," Nichols said. 

"So, we might go to the Futurity onto the William Reid and that will do him for the prep. 

"I just think the William Reid might be a bit softer, not that there are any soft William Reid's." 

Zac Spain, who has ridden Streets Of Avalon in five of the gelding's nine wins and was aboard in the Australia Stakes success, will ride the gelding on Saturday.