Group One winner Sacred Elixir will not contest the Gr.1 Rosehill Guineas on Saturday week and will head towards the Gr.1 Australian Derby on April 1 without another run.

Trainer Tony Pike was pleased with the run of Sacred Elixir when fifth in last Saturday's Gr.1 New Zealand Derby.

"He's bounced through the race really well," Pike said. "Obviously, we had a few question marks going into the race as to whether he'd come up quite as well as he had in Brisbane and Melbourne, but I couldn't fault him after the race.

"He got a long way back in a slowly run race, after two of the on-speed runners did things wrong coming out of the barriers, but his sectionals were very good, with the fastest last 600 metres and 400 metres of the race.

"He's on the way back up and if he pleases us in the next couple of weeks then he'll go straight to the ATC Derby.

"We probably won't run in the Rosehill Guineas. He's got plenty of mileage in his legs. We will give him an exhibition gallop or two and if we're happy he will fly to Sydney on the Monday before the Derby."