Canny Ballad will have his first start for new trainer John Thompson at Rosehill as he begins a campaign aimed at going one better in the Wyong Cup.
Thompson has not yet decided whether to run him in a benchmark race over 1200 metres on Saturday or step him out in the Listed Winter Stakes over 1400.
The gelding won the Albury Cup in March 2014 when trained by the late Guy Walter.
His best performance in eight starts for Joe Pride was his second to Multilateral in the Listed Wyong Gold Cup (2100m) in September last year.
He has had two barrier trials for Thompson who is pleased with his progress.
“I’m not sure yet which race he will run in,” Thompson said.
“We are aiming up at the Wyong Cup so I’ll have a good think about his program.
“He has done well and ran second at Wyong last year.”
The Winter Stakes will have a maximum field of 14 with Canny Ballad to carry the minimum of 54kg.
He was added to the benchmark race on Tuesday when nominations were extended but would have to lump 59kg with Oakfield Commands topweight on 63kg.
Canny Ballad is by Dream Ballad, a stakes-winning half brother to the Walter-trained champion Tie The Knot
The Winter Stakes will also feature Haussmann and Two Blue who fought out the finish of the Civic Stakes last Saturday week.
The John O’Shea-trained Haussmann will be aiming to emulate stablemate Generalife who completed the Civic-Winter Stakes double a year ago for Godolphin.
Haussmann overhauled Two Blue to win the Civic Stakes (1350m) by a half neck to claim his seventh race win and his first beyond 1300 metres.
The Peter Moody-trained Noela’s Choice, one of two winners at Randwick on Saturday for visiting Melbourne apprentice Regan Bayliss, is among the Winter Stakes entries.
