Matt Laurie has Group 1 aspirations at the back of his mind for Chartres, who will return to the races in the Dr Sheahan Plate at The Valley on Saturday.

The Mornington-based trainer said that the G1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes could be on the agenda for him this spring at Caulfield, the same track where he celebrated his biggest win in the $500,000 VOBIS Sires Guineas.

Chartres has never raced at The Valley before, but he familiarised himself with the tight inner-city circuit on Tuesday morning.

“He seems good,” Laurie said.

“He loves a wet track, he really glided through it yesterday in his work. We’ve been happy with his trials, so we’ve accepted in the six-furlong (1200m) Benchmark 84.

“He’s a handy horse, he’d obviously have to pick up a race early to help us maybe target some better races, but we’ll just have to see what happens there.

“He’s got a 75 rating, so he’d have to come up quite substantially.”

Sportsbet has Chartres at $34 in its market for the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes on September 17.

WATCH: Chartres’ recent trial behind Passive Aggressive

Laurie’s other runner at The Valley on Saturday is Shalaman.

The lightly raced colt will go into the Listed McKenzie Stakes (1200m) third-up for the campaign.

“I think he’s done quite well,” Laurie responded when asked for his assessment of Shalaman’s form this preparation.

“His maiden win was quite smart; he came back to 955m 10 days later and he held his own. I really feel like he’s probably ready for the step up in distance.”

WATCH: Shalaman’s run behind Alpha One at the Valley

Shalaman’s latest run was at The Valley, but he gained further experience at the track when he galloped there on Tuesday.

“We took him there yesterday, he worked quite well,” Laurie said.

“Obviously, it was quite wet and chopped out, but we were happy enough with that and we’ve accepted for the weekend.”

Laurie is hoping that by Saturday The Valley hasn’t been too badly affected by the rain that is forecast for the next few days.

“I think we’d all like something a little bit better,” he said.

“He got through it, I wouldn’t say he loved it, but I certainly wouldn’t shy away from it.”

Shalaman is at $11 in Sportsbet’s McKenzie Stakes market.