Canterbury reinsman Ben Hope is out to seal his spot in next month's New Zealand Junior Drivers' Championships at Invercargill tomorrow.
Hope sits outside the six South Island qualifying positions for the championships heading, but can move in to contention with a top-two finish with Kingslayer in race 6.
The pacer, trained by Ben's parents, Greg and Nina Hope, looks the horse to beat in tomorrow's junior drivers' race following his impressive last-start win at Timaru.
"He has shown a bit of promise at the trials and he has done it race-day as well so he looks like a really nice chance," Ben said.
"This week he seems as good as he was at Timaru, so long as he travels down there all right is the thing.
"He has never travelled too far before but he has shown no signs that it is going to be an obstacle."
Kingslayer reeled off his last 800m in 55.7sec in his last start, a sectional time that would make him almost impossible to catch if he was able to lead tomorrow.
The horse dashed away from the mobile from barrier 1 at Timaru and Hope cannot see barrier 6 stopping him from leading again if the horse is asked to.
"He does get out of the gate and I don't think many would be able to beat him out of the gate."
The Hope stable will provide a rarity at tomorrow's meeting when lining up Rockntommy Rulz in race 6.
Seldom is a 2yr-old seen in standing-start races over the 2700m staying trip.
"He only qualified on Monday," Hope said.
"It probably is a big step up going in a 2700m stand, but he has given every indication that he is great from a stand and he should step really well."
"We are probably going to look to drive him conservatively."
