Trainer Mark Purdon has a word of warning for punters as Akuta prepares to step into open class.
The sensational three-year-old pacer will take on established elite in Krug, Alta Wiseguy and Pembrook Playboy in the $30,000 Hannon Memorial at Oamaru on Sunday.
How he performs on Sunday and in his next two starts may determine whether Akuta will be given his chance in the New Zealand Cup at Addington on November 8.
That would be an extreme rarity a three-year-old starting in the Cup but Akuta is effectively four and would have been rated as such until harness racing moved to a calendar year season.
So while Akuta would create history if he was to win the Cup, in reality he is the same age as when Lazarus won a star-studded Cup by 10 lengths in his four-year-old season.