An early morning phone call to a trusted adviser might decide whether trainer Roger James has two starters in Saturday's $200,000 Captain Cook Stakes.
James and training partner Robert Wellwood find themselves in a tricky position as they know both favourite Concert Hall and Hypnos could win the big Group 1 mile but they want at worst a slow8 track, with a slow7 a lot more preferable.
But Trentham is a heavy10 today and James doesn't have the luxury of knowing what conditions they can expect before they decide to load the pair on to a transporter for the long trip south from Cambridge to Wellington this morning.
"The float is due to leave at 8am so we will do our best to get a track appraisal before then," says James.
"We are lucky that Hypnos' owner Ron Dixon is actually a former president of the Wellington Racing Club and knows the track really well so we can rely on him for an honest opinion on what it is doing, as well as the weather.