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By Ray Hickson

Promising stayer Military Mission is being groomed by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott as a future Sydney Cup hopeful and Saturday’s Listed $150,000 Furphy Winter Cup (2400m) at Rosehill is an important step in that direction.

The lightly raced import is striving to emulate stablemate Knights Order who posted his first stakes win in last year’s Winter Cup before going on to win both the Group 2 Brisbane Cup and this year’s Group 1 Sydney Cup.

Trainer Adrian Bott. (Pic: Bradley Photos).

Bott said it’s unlikely Military Mission will continue his preparation north but he does strike the stable as having Sydney Cup-style staying potential.

“He’s on that trajectory but that’s still another 12 months down the path,’’ Bott said.

“It’s his first real Australian preparation and he’s gone through the grades nicely and improved every time he’s stepped out.

“This has been the main aim for him so I don’t think you’ll see him doing anything beyond Saturday, there’s no plans to back him up in the Brisbane Cup like Knights Order last year.

“It’s still early days for him and I do think there is a lot of upside.”

Military Mission, $1.75 favourite with TAB on Thursday, posted back-to-back wins at Canterbury and Hawkesbury before his hat-trick bid was foiled in the shadows of the post by Hameron in a 2080m Benchmark 78 at Gosford a month ago.

Bott said as much as he’d prefer to step up to Listed company on the back of three straight wins there was plenty of merit in the effort under 61kg and the horse will appreciate a sharp weight drop.

“We thought we might have been able to pick up that race on the way through, he is coming to stakes grade quickly but we need to start getting some weight relief,’’ he said.

“It’s hard to be winning with those weights over this sort of trip but he’s very brave, you couldn’t fault him.”

Stablemate Taikomochi was safely held at his first run in five weeks when midfield in the Lord Mayors Cup (2000m) two weeks ago and Bott said he may still need more racing to find form.

The eight-year-old hasn’t won since taking out the 2020 Group 3 Kingston Town Stakes but did have a year off the scene afterwards.

“It wasn’t a bad run the other day, he stuck on okay. He takes a bit of racing before we see him at his peak now he’s an older horse,’’ Bott said.

After a dominant debut win, two-year-old Baroque Road has the chance to choose his own adventure beyond the Bowermans Handicap (1300m) if he can repeat the dose.

The gelding, $2.30 favourite with TAB, overcame a wide gate to lead all the way at Kensington back on May 18 and will be faced with a similar task on Saturday but Bott said he expects Baroque Road to lead.

“He showed great speed in his trials and in his first race he probably stepped a bit slower than he had been but with that experience he should get back to showing that tactical speed,’’ he said.

“I’d like to think he could take up the running and control things up front.

“He’s very talented, and it was a very nice win on debut. It looks a nice race for him and we’d like to see him take that next step.”

Bott said an impressive win could tempt him to back up into next week’s Group 1 JJ Atkins (1600m) in Brisbane.

There’s a couple of new imports from the Waterhouse/Bott yard. Youth Spirit is a Group 3 winner and Group 2 placegetter in Europe and was due to kick off in the Petaluma Handicap (1800m) but he elected to trial at Randwick on Friday.

“He probably hasn’t quite adapted as quickly yet, like a couple of those Europeans it might take a bit of racing down here before we see him at his best,’’ he said.

“He hasn’t shown a lot of tactical speed in his trials, that’s why we are kicking him off over a bit of a trip. He will probably need a couple of runs to get himself accustomed to the racing here.”

Military Mission runs second at Gosford on May 7

King Of Clubs is a lightly raced four-year-old who wasn’t exposed to stakes company in Europe and Bott said the Ranvet Handicap (1500m) is a good chance for the horse to ‘ease into’ Australian racing.

On the back of an easy trial win on May 16, the entire has been kept safe at $6.50 with TAB on Thursday.

“He comes in with a nice rating to allow him that little bit of room to move within the classes before he’s fully tested,’’ Bott said.

“I thought his latest trial was very good, he rounded them up well and showed a nice turn of foot.

“He’s going to be at his best around 2000m plus so he might find them a bit sharp first-up but he is going well and is a nice style of horse.”

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