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Keith and Brendon Hawtin are playing mind games with their stakes winning mare Miss Pelear.

The Te Awamutu trainers are optimistic they have the six-year-old in the right physical order with the mare now requiring a boost in her self-belief to complete an overdue return to her best.

“Her feet have always been an issue, but they are as good as they have ever been,” Brendon Hawtin said.

“It’s been frustrating trying to get her back to recapturing that form of a couple of years ago and we know she’s good enough to compete in the big miles - it’s just about giving her the confidence to hit out the way she used to.”

Miss Pelear has had one run back from a spell and she will strip a fitter horse in Saturday’s Civics @ Cambridge Thoroughbred Lodge 1200 at Te Rapa, in which she will be ridden by Trudy Thornton.

“She had a good hit out the other day and with a lack of lead-up trials she ran out of puff and I think she will be a quick improver,” Hawtin said.

“She’s as sound as a bell and we got her back in early so we could give her a few runs before we step her up to 1400 metres and beyond again.”

Miss Pelear made a name for herself during her 2012 summer preparation when she won the Gr.2 Rich Hill Stud Mile at Ellerslie and placed in the Gr.1 Thorndon Mile and the Gr.2 Auckland Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes.