Albrecht faces a campaign-defining race at Flemington on Saturday after a perplexing first-up failure.

Trainer Peter Snowden was left scratching his head after the highly-rated Albrecht finished sixth behind Royal Haunt as favourite in the Listed Manfred Stakesat Caulfield last Saturday week.

If he puts in another below par performance on Saturday, the colt will be sent back to Sydney and miss the Australian Guineas (1600m).

But Snowden, who was in Melbourne on Tuesday to watch Albrecht work, said all indications were he could bounce back strongly in the 1400m event.

“I had to make sure in my mind he was right again and I was more than happy with what I saw this morning,” Snowden said.

Snowden said he had “no idea” what to put the colt’s first-up run down to but hoped it was just him not handling Caulfield for the first time.

“I was dumbfounded,” he said.

“There’s nothing wrong with the horse, he seems perfect. Maybe it was Caulfield the first time, I don’t know.

“He had a good click-up this morning and I couldn’t fault him. His work was excellent so look, if he ran poorly again on Saturday I would definitely take him back home.

“It means to me that he’s just not handling Melbourne, but I can see nothing in his work or the way he looks for him to run anything but well on Saturday.”

Albrecht was at $10 for the Australian Guineas before his first-up run but has drifted to $18.

All Too Hard is the $2.40 Guineas favourite but is not a definite starter.

Trainer John Hawkes said he would wait until next week to decide if All Too Hard runs in the Futurity Stakes or waits for the Guineas.

Pierro has already been ruled out of the Guineas so the March 2 event could be without two headline acts.

Even if that’s the case, Snowden knows it won’t be an easy race to win.

Snowden-trained runners have twice finished second in the Australian Guineas – Marching in 2008 and Bullbars in 2011.

For the past three years, Snowden has had the favourite – (Fravashi (2009), Denman (2010), Helmet (2012) – only for all three to miss a place.

“I’ve tried to win it a few times now and it’s a tough race to win,” he said.

Albrecht’s stablemate Knoydart, who also holds a Guineas nomination, is staying in Melbourne for the time being with Albrecht’s performance on Saturday to have a bearing on where he runs next.

The 18 CS Hayes Stakes nominations include Royal Haunt, Lunar Rise, Hosting and Force Command.