Trainer Allan Sharrock has Group 1 ambitions at Pukekohe on Boxing Day but he will be in Wellington Cup mode at Hawera today.
The Wellington Cup is a month away but Sharrock says two of his team will take important steps towards that January 28 feature today when he lines up former Wellington Cup winner Waisake and Ladies Man in the $20,000 City Of New Plymouth Cup.
Sharrock is a master at setting his horses for targets and rarely finds two on the same path to the Wellington Cup, a race Waisake won last year.
He was favourite to defend his title this year until a tendon injury discovered three days before the race sidelined him for most of the year and he has had two starts back in minor races carrying huge weights.
That is the case again today, when he is carded with 67kg, but carrying 3kg less, with apprentice Lemmy Douglas claiming. Sharrock says there is method in his weight-carrying madness.