Well, if judgment of pace and the ability to make the running and hold something up your sleeve in long distance races is a measure, then Mallyon has all the skills it takes to give her a Cup chance if her partner is good enough.

Team Williams knows what it takes to win the Cup, the scion of the family, Melbourne businessman Lloyd, having won four already.

In recent years the Williams family have begun to team up with the hugely successful Coolmore operation in Ireland, buying promising staying gallopers from the Ballydoyle base of training maestro Aidan O'Brien and preparing them for a tilt at Australia's cups and middle distance classics.

And in the past few months Mallyon has often been their go-to rider, as she was on Saturday when she made every post a winning one to take out the group 2 Herbert Power Stakes aboard Assign.

The reason, says Nick Williams, is simple: Mallyon is one of the best judges of pace in the Victorian jockey ranks, and she seems to innately understand how to handle the imported European gallopers better than the other local riders.

"She's one of the few local jockeys that really understands pace and rides these European horses as a consequence particularly well. You certainly lose nothing having Katie on board and she gave that horse an absolutely super ride," Williams explained after Assign's victory.

"You certainly couldn't put anyone else on that horse and expect them to ride him any better ... she just rides these horses so well.

"A lot of the local jockeys here treat these European horses like our local horses and stop and go on them. These horses you need to wind them up and she seems to understand that better than most and does a terrific job with them."

Assign will need a penalty to raise his weight sufficiently to be a realistic chance of getting into the field on the first Tuesday of November, so he may try to win a race like the Bendigo Cup en route to do so.

Mallyon said afterwards that she owed her judgment of pace and speed to the advice she had been given by her father Brett, a former jockey and then trainer, and her grandfather Mick, who won three Caulfield Cups in his days in the saddle as a leading Victorian rider.

"I like to ride horses from the front. Horses love to run. I don't like breaking their spirit. Obviously not everything has to go forward and lead, but the horses that want to do it, I don't like breaking their stride. My statistics show that works for me," said the rider.

"I worked hard on it with my Dad and my Pop and I think Pop led in two of his three cups, if not all three of them.

"He's the one that told me racehorses love to run and you don't break their stride because you break their spirit. I worked hard on it and it's a time thing, it's also a feel thing, and I feel real horse people, real horsemen and horse girls have the feel for how fast they are going."

If Assign does get into the field and she gets the mount it will be another career highlight for an emerging jockey who already has won two apprentice titles.

"I have never actually sat on a Melbourne Cup horse before, but he's [Assign] pretty good and he's only going to get better as he gets further distance.

"I am just thrilled to be in the team and get given these opportunities. I am hoping for the Melbourne Cup, but I am just appreciative of what ever Team Williams give me."

The relationship with the Williams camp has blossomed this season, but it first fired when Mallyon was a youthful apprentice.

"I rode Fawkner [a subsequent Caulfield Cup winner] as a two-kilo claiming apprentice at Flemington and won on him. I  had a couple of rides for them during my apprenticeship, but this year it's really started." The ultimate racing form guide with free tips, live odds and alerts for all racing.