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By Ray Hickson

It’s not grand final day on Saturday, but trainer Tim Donnelly is hoping his promising Newhaven Park Country Championships bound three-year-old Participator can get a good feel for Randwick.

Trainer Tim Donnelly

Of course the gelding has to earn his spot in the $500,000 Final in April via a top two finish in his regional Country Championship at Wagga on February 19 but Donnelly expects Participator to show he’s on target first-up in the TAB Highway (1200m).

The Highway is shaping as a Class 3 Country Championships preview with the bulk of the big field being pointed towards the regional series which kicks off next weekend in Coffs Harbour and Nowra.

Donnelly said his charge, who won his only two starts at Wagga in May and October, will benefit from the experience both at Randwick and in a large field and is adamant his horse is all upside.

“You can only go on what he’s done,’’ he said.

“He may have beaten an ordinary lot at his last start but you have to trust your eye and how he did it. We haven’t seen the best of him yet.

“He’s inexperienced and coming up against horses that have performed at Highway level. He’s drawn a nice barrier which is good because there were 14 other barriers that were worse than his.”

Donnelly sent Participator, $5.50 favourite with TAB on Thursday, around in a barrier trial at Albury on January 20 and he partnered last year’s Southern District Country Championship winner Another One in a race day gallop at Wagga last week.

“He hasn’t put a foot wrong, I’m happy with how he’s gone the whole way,’’ he said.

“He had a very easy gallop the other day but that horse came out and ran well at Rosehill last weekend.”

The Wagga trainer is wary that the gelding needs to be conditioned for a 1400m race in three weeks and will instruct Hugh Bowman to ride him as such, getting him to settle and find the line.

He’s not ruling out Participator finding the line first and if he does he’ll charge into his second-up run with a real sense he can qualify for a Country Championships Final with only four starts under his belt.

“I would think he’ll be about midfield, I don’t think he will be any closer,’’ he said.

“It’s different to the races he’s run in, this will be a pretty willing race.

“We’ll ride him like he’s going to be a 1400m horse, that’s what we did in his trial. He probably switched off a bit more than I thought he would but it’s good that he did.”

Scone trainer Cameron Crockett is bullish about how Commando Hunt has returned for his Country Championships mission and is expecting the four-year-old to show he is right on target with a big first-up run.

He kicked off his last campaign by finishing on the placegetters’ heels behind Sunrise Ruby in a 1200m Randwick Highway, before winning second-up, and Crockett said he’s gone up a notch.

“I think he’s come up better than last time,’’ he said.

“He ended up winning a Highway, I might be wrong but I don’t reckon he was going as well as he is this time. I expect him to run really well and I’d be disappointed if he isn’t in the first four on Saturday.

Participator wins at Wagga in October

“He’s a dead set contender for our area (Hunter and North West). On his best form if he was to qualify he wouldn’t be out of the final.”

The gelding, $26 with TAB, was rested after being narrowly beaten in an open handicap at Dubbo on October 1 and that race told Crockett he’s not just a Highway horse.

He has two plans heading towards a third-up run in the Hunter and North West Country Championships at Tamworth on March 6 – if he wins he goes to the Preview at Scone, if he doesn’t he’ll run in another Highway as his final lead up.

Crockett said Kosciuszko sixth placed Mr Hussill is his top Country Championships seed but he will take an alternative path to Tamworth due to a minor seback, but one that was factored into his preparation.

“Commando Hunt is a very sound horse so you can stick with the plans for him, Mr Hussill you can make a loose plan for but you find yourself reassessing because you’ve got to manage him,’’ he said.

“He’s heading a different direction towards the heat but if he gets there right he’s the biggest hope I’ve got.”

Edit, trained at Tamworth by Cody Morgan, is the $8 Newhaven Park Country Championships Final favourite.

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