Gangsta Granny will have another chance to stake her claim in stakes company when she lines up in the Group 2 Sheraco Stakes at Rosehill, just weeks after giving unbeaten mare Autumn Glow a genuine scare.

Autumn Glow only wore her down late to prevail by half a length in the Toy Show Quality (1100m), a result that franked Gangsta Granny as a mare of substance heading into the spring.

While Autumn Glow bypasses the Sheraco to contest the Theo Marks Stakes (1300m) on the same program, her stablemate Joliestar looms as the one to beat. Freshly confirmed to represent the Waller slot in The Everest, Joliestar has opened $2.25 favourite for the mares’ sprint with Gangsta Granny rated her nearest challenger at $3.30.

Trainer Michael Hawkes was encouraged by Gangsta Granny’s first-up run and believes the margin could have been even tighter with different race circumstances. “She just got left wanting in front. I wish the leader had gone another fifty or seventy metres … Autumn Glow’s wheels were spinning. By the time it balanced up, our mare probably still gets beaten but it could have been a little bit different.”

Rosehill has again been hit with heavy rain this week, the track rated in the heavy 10 range on Thursday after 50 millimetres fell in 24 hours.

The Sheraco has drawn a compact but classy field of nine, featuring Doncaster Mile heroine Stefi Magnetica, Robert Sangster Stakes runner-up Ameena, and promising filly Lilac, who was placed in the Light Fingers Stakes earlier in the year.