Changes to Sydney’s autumn carnival program have prompted a rethink on plans for Protectionist.

The Melbourne Cup winner will join Newcastle trainer Kris Lees in the next few days and race for Australian Bloodstock.

He ran in the Melbourne Cup for German trainer Andreas Wohler with his previous owner retaining a share for his spring campaign.

The original plan was to target the weight-for-age BMW (2400m) but with the Ranvet just a week earlier, Australian Bloodstock director Jamie Lovett flagged other options including a trip to Singapore.

“Ideally we were going to head to the BMW but we’ve had a look at the calendar in the past two days,” Lovett told Sky Sports Radio.

“They’ve thrown the Ranvet in a week before the BMW so we’re probably a bit up in the air.

“We’ve got a couple of options – the Australian Cup – or there’s a race at Kranji in May worth $3 million, the Singapore Ailines Cup.

“We hadn’t realised until Kris pointed it out that the traditional lead-up to the BMW is seven days before.”

Lovett said he and his partner Luke Murrell would also welcome Protectionist’s stablemate Singing to Australia soon.

Singing finished second to Protectionist in a 2400m Group Two race in Germany in July.

“Singing had a setback which was disappointing because we thought he was our Caulfield Cup horse,” Lovett said.

“Andreas has a very good opinion of the horse and the plan is to bring him out later in the year.”

Protectionist was the most dominant winner of the Melbourne Cup in recent years and went to the gruelling 3200m test at just his 10th start.

He recorded his fourth win in the Prix Kergolay in France in August and was an eye-catching fourth in the Group Two Herbert Power (2400m) in his Melbourne Cup lead-up.