Dunkel is still a work-in-progress for trainer Patrick Payne but was able to show a strong ‘pick-up’ and sprint to win the Frank O’Brien Handicap at Sandown.

Notching second win in three starts, Dunkel showed his staying potential under jockey Harry Coffey settling at the rear of the field over the 1800-metre trip and quickened quickly at the 250-metre mark.

Winning on debut at Moonee Valley over 1600 metres on October 28, followed by a second placing a Cranbourne over 2025 metres in November, the three-year-old by Dundeel looked a Derby prospect but Coffey believes those 2023 features may come too soon.

“He’s not quite there yet,” Coffey said.

“It was unusual in the early stages today. He wasn’t brilliant out of the gates and I didn’t want to rev him up because we had a long time to catch them but he was really unenthused and didn’t really know what was going on.”

Showing a tendency to hang under pressure, Coffey chose to ‘go through traffic’ which was the winning move as Dunkel responded quickly.

“Once he got into the clear he let rip and did what he can do,” he added.

Noting the gelding’s immaturity, Coffey believes that a May date in the Group 1 South Australian Derby (2500m) may still be too soon for Dunkel to be ready as a genuine contender.

Dunkel ($1.60 favourite) scored by 1¾-lengths over Barefoot Tora ($18) with stablemate Hard To Cross ($5.50) in third.