ALTHOUGH most Australian racing fans are awaiting an international assault from superstar Black Caviar next season, three-year-old Star Witness showed yesterday he could start hogging the sporting headlines in England as early as next month.

The dual group 1 winner won an 800 metre trial at Werribee in a performance that had his trainer Danny O'Brien beaming 17 days shy of the colt's moment of truth in the group 1 King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.

''He will step on to the plane on Wednesday in the best condition of his life,'' O'Brien said.

''His trial was the second-quickest of the morning, and he did it comfortably and pulled up really well from it. I'm very pleased as to where he is.''

Star Witness and Peter Moody's three-year-old colt Hinchinbrook leave Melbourne next Wednesday for England, where the pair will be stabled at Newmarket in preparation for their Royal Ascot tasks.

Star Witness, which won the group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes, for three-year-olds, in the spring before his second behind Black Caviar in the Patinack Farm Stakes, has not raced since his below-par seventh to Black Caviar in her Newmarket Handicap romp.

But O'Brien said the horse had thrived in his time out of the stable at his Barwon Heads property.

''From what we know of him and from what he showed us this morning, there's plenty of petrol in the tank,'' he said. ''This is something we've been planning for 12 months or so, and with just 2½ weeks to go, I couldn't be more pleased.''

If the son of Australian and European group 1 winner Starcraft can grab a group 1 in England, he will retire with a record that will demand attention from breeders.

Star Witness, which also won the group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes for two-year-olds, could become the first Australian-bred colt win a major at two, three and in Europe before the end of his southern hemisphere three-year-old days.