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Dashing jumper Rangatira is likely to have one run at home before heading to Australia for the Oakbank Easter carnival.

“I’m hoping to take him to Wanganui and it depends how the track is, but he’ll probably run over a mile there and he’ll go over to Australia on April 13,” part-owner and trainer Steve Gulliver said.

“He’ll run in both the Von Doussa and the Great Eastern Steeples and he could stay on for a while – we might have a crack at the Grand National. If he’s going okay we’d like to bring him back then for the Northern again.”

Rangatira won a thrilling Great Northern Steeples at Ellerslie last year when he went out to a long lead and, after he was headed 150 metres from home, he rallied strongly to beat Kidunot by the barest of margins.

He was ridden by Isaac Lupton, who will make the trip to South Australia to ride Rangatira at the two-day Oakbank meeting on April 19 and 21.

“He knows him and I don’t think anyone else would have won on him in the Northern,” Gulliver said.

“The only thing that worries me a bit is the fences aren’t as big over there, but hopefully the longer distances will help him out.”

Rangatira returned to work in mid-December and the Deputy Governor 10-year-old has come back in good order.

“I’m rapt with him, he was always a bit skinny and he’s really solid now,” Gulliver said.

He races Rangatira with Wanganui owners Allan Barnes and co-breeder Alistair Murdoch, who also bred recent two-year-old winner King’s Secret.

“I’ve got his half-brother by Keeninsky here and he’s a really nice horse,” Gulliver said.