Gerald Ryan is leaning towards staying put with Mrs Onassis for the time being and delaying a likely trip north to Brisbane.

The four year old mare has had only the eight starts so far in her career but her last two runs have shown there could be some ability there.

She won at Hawkesbury on Oaks Day over 1000m before going to 1100m at Canterbury on November 11 and winning by a good margin in the Vinery Stud Handicap.

Ryan feels she’s ready to take her shot at the better competition but wants to find the right race.

If she goes to Brisbane this weekend she will face a hot field and be only three kilograms off the proven black type runner Zero Rock.

If she stays in Sydney she’ll be on the bottom limit at 53kg and in a lesser rated Benchmark 85 contest.

“I’m leaning to staying in Sydney. Under the conditions, she’s a Class 3 horse and might be too close to some of the better ones like Zero Rock,” Ryan said.

That said assuming she runs well this weekend he’ll have no hesitations looking for something better in Brisbane later in the summer.

“She has always shown the ability, but she just had trouble on wet tracks and she was a bit slow maturing,” he said.

“There’s a couple of other races coming up in Brisbane that are straight out handicaps and I could take her up for those.”

Ryan says the horse has shown ability since her first win at Wyong back in March but getting her right has been an ongoing battle.

“I’ve always had a nice opinion of her, but she had a few problems,” Ryan said.

“She had operations on her joints early on and (owner) Gerry (Harvey) didn’t even offer her as a yearling.

“She only came into the stables this time last year, so she was well and truly a three-year-old by the time she came in.”

Mrs Onassis has won three and placed once from eight starts since making her debut as a three year old in February of this year.