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Craig Thornton is following the lead of Indikator, his mount in Sunday's $A200,000 Grand National Hurdle at Sandown.
Te Aroha trainers Keith and Gavin Opie gave Indikator a flat run at Caulfield last Saturday to fine tune him for the 3900m jumping feature and the Sandtrap 10-year-old responded in kind by running a gallant third.
Thornton, who flies to Melbourne on Saturday, joked he was preparing to do the same thing as Indikator with four flat rides at Te Aroha on Wednesday before he returns to jumps riding on Sunday.
"It will be good to have a dust off before Sunday. I've got to ride at 65kg at Te Aroha which will be good because I've got to ride Indikator at 64 [kilograms] in Melbourne," Thornton said.
While there are four jumps races at Te Aroha on Wednesday, Thornton does not have a mount in a jumps race, in part because he didn't want to risk injury ahead of the Grand National.
"I didn't get offered anything but I probably wouldn't have taken one even if I had. I didn't go looking for one anyhow," Thornton said.
Regarded as one of the world's premier jumps jockeys, Thornton would love to guide Fast Profit to success in the 2200m maiden highweight.
"I'd like to get my own one home. He's placed in three of his last four and you'd like to think he'd go well," said Thornton, who trains a winter team of six at Cambridge.
He also rides Lucky Tonight in the 2200m jumps highweight for Cambridge trainers Shelley Houston and Ben Ropiha, Ngatira Gold for Ruakaka trainers Donna and Dean Logan in the 1600m Rating 65 highweight and the Ann Browne-trained Manoeuvre in the 1600m maiden highweight.
"That horse of Ann's goes a lot better than his form indicates," Thornton said.
"Shelley's horse will be a good chance too. He went a good race at Rotorua last time."
Meanwhile, Indikator was one of 12 entries in the Grand National Hurdle, which also attracted the former Kevin Myers-trained Sea King, Gotta Take Care, Moudre, Diamond Jim, Hissing Sid and Knocka Norris.
"All the main players are there," Thornton said."But they are very happy with Indikator. It was a huge run last weekend, exactly what we were looking for."
