He would be improved with the race, his first for four and a-half months.
Franco Emirate, a close second to Franco Ledger in the Maurice Holmes Vase (ffa) last Friday night, is favourite in final field betting at $3.50. He is back on the track where he staged a big run to win a lower grade race two years ago.
Mah Sish and Major Mark, both resuming from spells, share the second line of betting at $4.50. Sleepy Tripp is at $5 and Franco Ledger at $6.50.
Monkey King won the Hannon fresh up last year.
Mah Sish has had three trials.
He won at Addington on September 3 and finished second to Sleepy Tripp at Motukarara on Monday. His driver, Anthony Butt, has won the Hannon five times.
Major Mark was close up fourth in the Motukarara trial.
He has been gelded since he last raced.
• Trainer Mark Purdon has been fined $600 and ordered to pay $650 in costs by the Judicial Control Authority for failing to report to stewards a condition that may affect the performance of a horse. The case concerned Escapee, who was found to have a lesion on her rump when she contested a Harness Jewels race at Cambridge on June 2. Purdon defended the charge on the basis that in his opinion the lesion or rub would not have affected her performance.
• Trainer Tony Pike is concerned about barrier one for Sacred Falls in the $50,000 Challenge Stakes at Ruakaka today, The New Zealand Herald reports.
"It is a concern because he won't be able to use it," Pike said.
"He'll be back mid-field on the rail."
Sacred Falls was late working clear when he won first up at Ruakaka in May. He was a three-length winner in his subsequent start at Te Rapa.
Pike said Sacred Falls was fit enough to win today.
"He is forward," Mark Donoghue, his co-trainer, said.
• The inquiry into alleged abuse by Danny Nikolic of chief steward Terry Bailey has been put back from Monday until Wednesday.
It had been intended that the same RAD panel headed by Judge Russell Lewis would hear the charges, but the Nikolic legal team objected and a new, three-person panel was sought.
The inquiry will now be headed by RAD Board deputy chairman Brian Forrest, who returns from an overseas trip this weekend.
• Australia will have 71 group one races with the elevation of the Memsie, A J Moir and Canterbury Stakes to the highest level.
The Memsie (1400m) has been won in the past three seasons by Sincero, King's Rose and So You Think. The Moir Stakes (1200m) has twice been won by Black Caviar and the Canterbury Stakes (1300m) twice by More Joyous.
The three races will all carry a minimum of $350,000 from their next running.
• Additional information for meetings today:Whangarei RC:Scratchings:Race 4: Karen's keeper.
Race 7: Capone.
Weather, fine; track, dead (4); rail true.
Marton JC:Scratchings:Race 5: Pipette.
Race 6: Shotgun.
Race 7: Samsi.
Race 8: Desert Gem.
Weather, fine; track, heavy (10); rail true.
