The province's reigning horse of the year must carry a mammoth 63kg in race 5, the 1400m Coupland's Mile trial, in his first public outing since winning the group 3 Canterbury Gold Cup in April.
While logic says tomorrow's mission looks impossible, the Brian and Shane Anderton-trained 9yr-old has made a habit of doing extraordinary things on South Island racetracks.
That is why jockey Jacob Lowry is not writing off Tommy's chances.
``If he is as good as I think he is he is going to give it a good shake,'' Lowry said.
``It will probably have to be an 11 out of 10 ride for me to get him up but he has drawn well and he is going to get the right run. He is probably only going to get one opportunity to have a crack at them, carrying a weight like that.''
Lowry reports the horse has returned to work as good as he ever has despite his age.
``He is a bit more forward than he was last year. He took a bit longer to come up last year. He had a couple of niggles that held him back.''
``He is definitely a lot more forward and he is definitely rock-hard fit.''
Today's assignment will be the first of two the Anderton stable plans to give Tommy Tucker leading into the Coupland's Mile during the New Zealand Cup carnival next month.
Tommy Tucker will take on his stablemate, Coulee, who will have the benefit of a massive 7.5kg weight advantage over him with Corey Campbell's 3kg claim.
Lowry keeps a close eye on Coulee each morning as she and Tommy Tucker do all their training together.
The mare's late scratching from the Ashburton meeting last weekend was precautionary and Lowry expects her to be highly competitive tomorrow, given what he has seen in training recently.
Lowry rides Irish Express in tomorrow's listed 3yr-old race over 1600m.
Four North Island raiders headed the early bookmakers' market. The Tony Pike-trained Ever Loyal headed the betting from Scott Base, Inanna and Swing Note.
Inanna could land her trainers, Ken and Lisa Rae and Krystal Williams, consecutive black-type wins in the South Island following on from the success of Prom Queen at Ashburton last weekend.
Making things tricky for their smart filly is her tricky 15 barrier draw, two spots wider than Ever Loyal.
In contrast, Swing Note and Scott Base will jump from the handy draws of barriers 5 and 6, respectively.
Tommy Tucker is not the only Otago-trained horse charged with carrying a big weight tomorrow. Terry Kennedy's Princess Brook has been assigned the task of carrying 60kg in the listed Spring Classic (2000m).
The 6yr-old will be ridden by northern jockey Jason Waddell, who also rides Every Loyal, for the first time due to the suspension of her regular rider, Chris Johnson.
