A pair of stablemates at double-figure odds could be the knockout runners in the Listed Parramatta Cup with their trainer not dismissing the winning chances of either horse.

Kris Lees will saddle up two-time Group winner Kalapour ($15) and Almania ($14) in Saturday’s 1900-metre feature and he can make a case for both.

Kalapour was spelled after finishing down the track in the Melbourne Cup, a race that came at the end of a busy period encompassing a winter carnival campaign in Brisbane and an early-season kick off in the spring.

However, he has run well fresh in the past and Lees has been pleased with his build up.

“He can race well fresh and he’s in good order,” Lees said.

“He had a long, tough year of racing last year, but he’d been off for a while before that.

“He will no doubt improve off the run, but he could react well fresh.”

Kalapour holds a nomination for the Sydney Cup (3200m) but Lees is unlikely to go down that path, instead leaning towards giving the seven-year-old a relatively soft campaign in preparation for a more demanding back-end of the year.

“I don’t know if I will go to two miles with him this prep. He will probably have a lighter preparation and a busier spring,” he said.

Almania is a winner over the Parramatta Cup (1900m) course and distance and will tackle Saturday’s race at his second campaign run.

He was having his first start in 10 months when sixth behind Floating over 2000 metres at Randwick in January and was given a subsequent barrier trial to keep his fitness up to the mark.

Lees believes that has brought him on nicely for Saturday and the gelding has proven his wares in stakes grade before, placed in Listed company overseas and beaten less than a length when fifth in the Group 3 N E Manion Cup (2400m) in March.

“With a prep run under his belt and a trial in between, he could easily run a race there,” Lees said.

“We’re testing him in better company, but he’s a horse we’ve always had a bit of time for, he is quite capable on his day.”

Lees will also have dual representation in the Yarraman Park Handicap (1400m) with both Ucalledit and the in-form Kinloch using the race as a springboard into their local feature, the Group 3 Newcastle Stakes (1400m) on March 8.

Kinloch is the more fancied of the two at $6.50 with online bookmakers and if he can strike the right conditions, Lees expects him to be launching on the leaders late.

“He needs favours, he needs a hot speed and different things because he is a backmarker as a rule. But that said, he’s going well,” Lees said.