Gallant Boy produced a sustained sprint to win last year’s race after being ridden cold in the early stages of the event.
Although the Gallant Guru galloper has been handy in his races recently, rider Jacob Lowry will be going back to the tactics that worked so well last year when he is legged aboard tomorrow.
"He has been chasing those younger horses carrying big weights and he is probably struggling with it a bit," Shane Anderton said.
"We will probably ride him a bit colder on Saturday over a mile [1600m]."
"When he gets up there handy and starts chasing he doesn’t have the finish on him."
Gallant Boy’s form line coming into the 1600m feature does not look as good as last year when he won the Southland Crystals and ran fourth in the Timaru Cup.
That can be put down to circumstance, as the horse raced on a surface too firm for his liking in the Cromwell Cup and was shut out of a gap at a vital stage of the Gore Cup.
Gallant Boy split those two efforts when going a huge race for third in the Tapanui Cup at Gore.
"He is well enough in himself and if he brings his A-game he will be right in it," Anderton said.
"He got a bit of give in the ground the first time at Gore, then the other day he was shut out of a gap."
"Once he picked himself up, the others were off and gone."
Early favourite Who Dares Wins is another horse perfectly suited to tomorrow’s weight-for-age conditions.
The Tony and Lyn Prendergast-trained 7yr-old is also stuck at the top of the South Island handicaps and regularly has to carry 60kg, as he did in his last-start victory in the Timaru Cup.
"It is hard to get races to suit him with where he is at the weights now," Tony Prendergast said.
"You don’t often get a weight-for-age mile; it is pretty much ideal for him."
The 7yr-old has had a 1000m trial to keep his fitness up to the mark between his Timaru Cup run and his White Robe Lodge Weight-For-Age tilt.
"He went a real nice trial. We didn’t want to do too much; he did exactly what we wanted," Prendergast said.
"He just went around with them and finished it off real good.
"Then he worked on round to the 800m after they past the post.
"He had a week off after Timaru and he freshened up a bit and he has come back real good."
Who Dares Wins’ recent form suggests he is going as well as ever and his training earlier this week confirmed this.
"He galloped at Riccarton earlier this week and he worked as good as he has worked."
"We have a bit of a problem with him putting on weight, but he is back to his normal racing weight right now."
Who Dares Wins and Gallant Boy clash with Southland up-and-comer Tobilicious.
The Kelvin and Aimee Tyle- trained 4yr-old produced a stunning win from off the speed on Boxing Day at Wingatui to complete a hat-trick of wins.
