Progressive Neasham/Archibald colt to take next step in Tapp-Craig.

Mayne faces a steep rise in class in Saturday's Tapp-Craig at Rosehill, but it is not as sharp as the one that connections considered.

The three-year-old's only two starts have been in maidens, but such is the opinion Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald have of the son of Written Tycoon that they toyed with the idea of heading to the Group 1 Golden Rose.

But sights were lowered and he will contest Saturday's $500,000 Listed event.

"He's a really nice colt and we saved him for this race," Neasham said.

"We had half an idea of maybe going to the Golden Rose, but we thought we wouldn't throw him into the deep end and we'd just freshen him up and he had a trial."

Mayne was narrowly beaten on debut when third in a Warwick Farm Super Maiden on August 21 and then was a dominant winner over 1300m Randwick's Kensington track on September 11.

He has been kept up to the mark with an 818m Warwick Farm trial on September 30, which he won narrowly.

Mayne came up with barrier four for Saturday's race, in which he will be ridden by Tyler Schiller, and Neasham said he has the ability to be prominent throughout.

"He'll put himself up on speed and hopefully he's got a lot of upside," Neasham said.

Mayne is a $10 chance in a Tapp-Craig market headed by the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Anode ($3.40), who is coming off an eighth placing in the Golden Rose.