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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Cameron Crockett has one eye on a Highway with consistent galloper Dethroned but he says since the gelding is so well placed at Dubbo on Sunday it’s an opportunity that’s hard to pass up.

Trainer Cameron Crockett (Pic: Bradley Photos)

The three-year-old broke through for his first win for Crockett at Muswellbrook on April 1 thanks to a shrewd piece of placement where he skipped a grade to get some weight relief and it’s placement that is in the forefront of the trainer’s mind.

Dethroned, engaged in the Maccas Chicken Deluxe Handicap (1400m) at Dubbo, enjoys a forgiving surface and a look at the forecast has Crockett tempted by a Highway at Randwick next week.

“It was Plan B this race, we were going to take him to the Highway the following week,’’ he said.

“He won that race well the other day and he’s been very consistent.

“We looked ahead at the weather and it looks like the rain will come back next week but we thought we’d throw in a nom for Dubbo. He’s a pretty tough horse, he might be able to go around at Dubbo and back up six days later if the ground was a heavy 10.”

After placings in his first three starts for the stable, high in the weights in Benchmark 58s and Class 1s, Crockett elected to go up in grade and came up trumps in a Class 3 at Muswellbrook.

He stays in that grade on Sunday but only rises to 59kg in a race where 14 of the 17 acceptors are weighted on the 55kg limit.

“When they have that bit of ability sometimes if you throw them up in grade and down in weight they’ll put their best foot forward,’’ he said.

“Even with 59kg on Sunday, that’s not like 61kg and a lot of them are benchmark 50 raters and are probably not the same class as him.

"I said to the owners there was two nice races for him (at Muswellbrook), one’s a 1280m 58 where he’s got to take on horses coming from town with top weight. Or we roll the dice on a heavy track that he runs out the 1450m and we get him up in grade against country horses only on the minimum.

“The sting out of the ground at the very least would be appreciated. I don’t think he’s as effective when it’s firm. He just doesn’t seem as electric on top of the ground.”

Crockett has a dash of confidence about the lightly raced Holly Road second-up in the Wheel-Conn Crete Handicap (1300m) and the fingers crossed for fellow maiden mare My Khaleesi in the Omni Building Group Handicap (1300m).

The former found the trip a bit sharp when she resumed at Mudgee but that didn’t surprise Crockett as the four-year-old had to get her campaign going in an unsuitable race.

“This time she started working a lot better and we were confident she was going to run a good race wherever she went first-up but we ultimately wanted 1200m,’’ he said.

“The 1100m at Mudgee, they generally scoot up to the first turn and you get on the back foot a bit.

“Brooke (Stower) had to keep putting her back onto the bit because those horses had a bit too much dash for her. When she got clean air she hit the line hard.

“I just hope Dubbo races fair and she will be very hard to beat.”

My Khaleesi is having her 14th race start and after looking the winner first-up at Quirindi a few weeks ago Crockett is starting to wonder if that elusive breakthrough will come.

She’s been placed in six of her 13 starts and he said at home she gallops like a horse that shouldn’t be a maiden and hopes a 2kg drop in weight will assist her.

“I thought we were finally about to crack it the other day,’’ he said.

“If she’s not breaking her maiden in her next couple of runs I’d be very concerned she might never.

Dethroned wins at Muswellbrook on April 1

“Brooke said she was home for all money and when she saw the post coming she dropped back a gear.

“To look at the run on face value you’d probably say she needed the run but when she came back to the stalls it looked like she’d gone for some three quarter work.”

Meanwhile, Country Championships runner-up Commando Hunt is having a break as Crockett works out the best way to showcase him for a slot in The Kosciuszko in the spring.

He’s likely to only have a three-start campaign, hopefully culminating in the $1.3m race, so he can have a second shot at the Championships in 2023.

All the fields, form and replays for Sunday’s Dubbo meeting