Deep Field's strike in Lightning at Randwick poses a next-race dilemma for Hawkes Racing

And his Deep Field did not disappoint, ambling to victory in the City Tattersalls Club Lightning to all but seal an assault on the Flemington straight track later in the spring.

But even the measured Hawkes snr, showing equal doses of conservatism in race programming and public commentary, will be hard pressed to keep a lid on the hype building around the unbeaten Deep Field.

"He's got the world at his feet, but going into this race everyone was still knocking him," co-trainer and son Michael Hawkes said.

"You can only really do what you can do. He's won four from four, we're taking him slow as he goes through the grades and it's just ... 'exciting', I suppose, is the best word for it. We just let the horse do the talking."

Now Hawkes Racing just has to decide where Deep Field will next do his talking. The Yellowglen Stakes on Derby day in a fortnight looms as one option and the Darley Classic, at group 1 level, on November 8 at Flemington is another.

Perhaps slightly muddying matters is the Hawkes already plan to have Chautauqua burning off the best of Melbourne's sprinters over the straight six.

"There's that [Darley Classic], there's the Yellowglen and it depends on how he pulls up on where we go and what we do," Michael Hawkes said of Deep Field. "When they win like that it's pretty exciting.

"We haven't had one like that for a while and now Chautauqua is doing it at the top level and to have another horse like this, and an entire now, everyone's looking at as well. They're things everyone takes note of ...

"We just try to put him in the right races and we're just letting him do it all. He's got the world at his feet. It's only early days, but who knows [how good he can be]?"

The favourite on course at a prohibitive $1.26 – eased from a $1.20 opening quote – never really got out of second gear as Brenton Avdulla, filling in for James McDonald while on Caulfield Cup duty, asked only for a moderate effort over the final furlong.

Second placegetter That's A Good Idea could get within only three lengths. Shamalia was close up in third.

Even Avdulla expects to be left in Deep Field's wake the next time the boom entire steps out.

"I definitely think he's one of the best horses I've ridden and I've ridden group 1 winners, so he definitely gives you the feel of a good horse," Avdulla said. "It's a very valuable horse and for them [connections] to put faith in me, it gave me confidence to go out there and do the job on him.

"If I never get the opportunity again, I've had a good thrill on him."

If John Hawkes was thrilled, he was not going to show it.

"It was OK," he said. "He did what he had to do and it was a good effort. He's only a baby and it was just his fourth start in a race."

The cumulative winning margin Deep Field has racked up in those four races now stands at 23 lengths. There was no track record in the latest romp, unlike his last-start Canterbury midweek success, but there was never going to be on a Randwick track with considerable give in the ground.

The rest of the beaten brigade might be thanking their lucky stars they did not try to pressure Deep Field, as did Thomas Huet aboard Barbed mid-race.

Said That's A Good Idea rider Josh Parr: "When I saw Tommy Huet coming up alongside Deep Field and putting pressure on him I thought, 'Keep going, Thomas, this is playing into our hands'.

"But he was able to release the pressure from the leader, which gave him a cheap time.

"My horse was sensational in defeat and he'll win a good race."

So will Deep Field. But which one?