But because it comes so early in the season it isn't always the best long-term indicator of a colt's career trajectory.

In England the 2000 Guineas, which has been run over 200 years at Newmarket and is the British equivalent of Saturday's Caulfield race, is often referred to as the last two-year-old race of the previous season, so early in the new campaign is it held.

In some ways the Caulfield Guineas is similar, pitching the best of the two-year-olds, horses who proved themselves in their juvenile days, against latecomers who have arrived on the scene late in their two-year-old careers and run through the winter into early spring.

The race has grown in stature in the past three decades where it has been heavily hyped as a stallion-making contest, the winner touted as a potential champion sire of the future.

That is even more so the case now its stake money has been raised to $2 million.

But is it worthy of that reputation? Do its winners go on to be future champions on the track and in the breeding barn, or do they come up short?

The answer, like so many things in life, is nuanced.

Results over the past 20 years, the period in which the marketing machine around big races like the Guineas has gone into overdrive, suggest that the truth lies somewhere in between.

For every wonderful winner like Redoute's Choice, who saw off Testa Rossa in that epic battle in 1999, Lonhro, who scored in 2001 from Ustinov, and All Too Hard, the half-brother to Black Caviar who won in 2012 when he defeated Pierro, there have been some profoundly disappointing scorers who didn't go on to achieve much later in their career.

Redoute's Choice's position in the Australian pantheon is long established. A champion on the track, the son of Danehill has exerted an enormous influence in the breeding shed as a sire of multiple top-line gallopers, usually best at sprint trips or up to 1600 metres.

Lonhro has also been exceptional at stud and, like Redoute's Choice, has sired some outstanding horses - such as Pierro, the Golden Rose winner Denman, the good mare Beaded and another Golden Rose winner Exosphere. Like Redoute's Choice, his progeny tend to be best at up to a mile - their breeding results reflecting the increased focus of the Australian industry on producing sharp precocious horses likely to excel over shorter distances.

But punters should be aware that many Guineas winners struggle afterwards and a lot have failed to win another race.

Whether it is the supreme exertion required to win at the highest level so early in their career or the fact that they get overtaken by later more slowly maturing types with more natural ability isn't clear. Probably, as with so much in racing, a mixture of the two.

Gallopers such as In Top Swing (2003), Econsul (who sprang a huge surprise in 2004), Shooting to Win, Helmet, Anacheeva, Wonderful World and God's Own never won again after their big day at Caulfield. Econsul, in fact, only ran one place in 16 subsequent starts.

However, Lonhro went on to win 10 group 1s in a star-studded career after scoring at Caulfield, Starspangledbanner won top sprint races in Britain and saluted in three subsequent group ones, while Show A Heart landed two at the highest level.

The geldings who succeeded - the phenomenon that was Weekend Hussler and the ultra-consistent Whobegotyou (2007 and 2008) raced 39 times between them after, winning 14. Of those, seven were at group 1 level, with Weekend Hussler landing six.

The 2002 winner Helenus was the last to go on and win the Victoria Derby over 2500 metres - a reflection, once again, of the way Australian racing's focus has been placed on sprinter milers.

Connections of a Guineas winner are more likely these days to aim it at the Coolmore, over 1200 metres on Derby Day, than the Derby itself.

At stud, none of the recent winners bar Redoute's Choice and Lonhro have yet been stand-outs, although Show A Heart has been a source of regular winners in Queensland and has got group 1 winners in Heart of Dreams, Toorak Toff and Woorim. It is too early to judge the likes of Divine Prophet (who hasn't won since scoring last year), or the 2015 winner Press Statement or Shooting to Win.

Jake Norton, the Melbourne Racing Club's general manager of racing, says that the Guineas is fast rivalling the Caulfield Cup as the club's biggest race.

"The cup is the one with the international reputation and is steeped in history and is the race with which we are historically associated with, but the Guineas, particularly with the increase in stake money, is becoming more important all the time," he said.

"There is such an emphasis in Australian bloodstock on speed now that there is a premium on quality milers.

"This year we also tried to attract some foreign entries and altered the conditions so northern hemisphere horses at the end of their two-year-old season might be attracted. They would get a weight allowance of two kilos if they came, and we are hopeful that some of the big operations like Godolphin or Coolmore might look at something like that in the future as it would further develop the race."