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By Ray Hickson

Emerging stayer Naval College could stamp himself as a carnival prospect and hand apprentice Jett Stanley a stakes breakthrough if the pair continue their strong association at Rosehill on Saturday.

Aaron Lau, assistant trainer for Annabel Neasham. (Pic: Steve Hart)

The Annabel Neasham-trained import arrives at the Listed $200,000 James Squire January Cup (2000m) with three Australian wins from seven starts for the stable, all three under Stanley’s steering, the latest a popular victory at Randwick two weeks ago.

Neasham’s assistant trainer Aaron Lau said there’s a bit on the line for Naval College this month with the Listed Australia Day Cup (2400m) on January 26 pencilled in as the logical progression.

“The next couple of starts will give us an indication of whether he’s a carnival horse or not,’’ Lau said.

“We rode him patiently first-up from a bad draw and he hit the line well then he was a good winner last start. His work since that has been brilliant, we can’t fault him.

“Jett seems to have a good affiliation with him and it’s a good opportunity for him to ride his first stakes winner.”

The five-year-old took advantage of an inside draw and enjoyed an economical run in his second-up win over Touristic, who again opposes him on Saturday, and drops to the limit of 53kg.

Lau said another favourable draw in the January Cup should afford Stanley the chance to put Naval College wherever he needs to be in the run to pass his biggest test so far.

“He’s a pretty push button horse, you can have him anywhere in the run,’’ he said.

“He normally begins pretty sharply in his races and from the draw he should land in the first three or four.

“You saw him hit the lead the other day and he had a little bit of a look around, and his work has come on since the run, so I think there is definitely some improvement in him.”

While Naval College headed the market, $2.60 with TAB on Thursday, stablemate Regal Lion is considered an outsider after finishing second last in the Group 3 Summer Cup on Boxing Day.

The gelding wears blinkers this time around and he showed in winning the Ipswich Cup back in June that he can feature when it’s least expected.

“He was six weeks between runs in the Summer Cup,’’ Lau said.

“He can mix his form around a little bit but he has a light weight and blinkers on so hopefully we can see improvement."

There’ll be plenty of eyes on whether Aristonous can rebound in the Farnan Yearlings Selling Now Handicap (1800m) after his shock second-up failure.

On the back of an eye-catching return in early December, the gelding finished over 15 lengths behind So United as a $2.80 favourite in a performance that stumped the stable.

He’s since been back to the trials and drops to 2.5kg after Stanley’s claim.

“It’s a little bit of a head scratcher. We had a good look over him and couldn’t find anything wrong with him,’’ Lau said.

“No excuses that day, we thought he would be pretty hard to beat.

Naval College wins at Randwick on December 30

“He’s had the trial in between which is good and we can’t fault his work. We can’t pin it down to anything and we expect him to bounce back.”

Import Western Front was saved from Wednesday’s Warwick Farm meeting to accompany Aristonous and Lau feels he did enough last start to warrant keeping an eye on him in the short term.

“I thought it was a pass mark first-up, he got back to the inside and they were coming down the outside,’’ he said.

“He likes a bit of give in the ground but hopefully he can improve from first-up.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Rosehill meeting