Mike Moroney is convinced the best of Araldo has yet to be seen in Australia and the trainer is hoping he can show his quality in this year’s staying features.

The German import resumes in Saturday’s Listed Slickpix Stakes at Caulfield having recovered from a stress fracture in his back, detected after his third in the Lexus Stakes at Flemington in November.

The son of High Chaparral had won the Listed Bart Cummings (2500m) at his previous start on protest over Sea Moon.

Moroney is hoping to target the Cups with Araldo and is pleased to have him back at the races on Saturday, although admitting the stayer is still pretty burly and likely to find the 1700m too short.

“He’s a really nice stayer. From a mile-and-a-half up he’s going to be very competitive I would think,” Moroney said.

“He’s shown glimpses and he’s pretty lightly raced.

“His form reads pretty good for a lightly raced horse and he just looked as if he was going to take the next step if things had been right with him.”

Araldo needed box rest as the first part of his recovery from the injury and then spent some time in the paddock before his return to the stable.

The seven-year-old is among nominations for the Cox Plate, the Caulfield Cup and the Group One Metropolitan in Sydney.

The Slickpix Stakes, formerly the Heatherlie Handicap, has attracted 30 nominations with Sea Moon given topweight with 61.5kg ahead of Masked Marvel who has 59kg.

The Peter Moody-trained Ibicenco, winner of the race last year, also has 59kg while Araldo has 56kg.