Riverton trainer Kelvin Tyler is wary of carrying the top weight but is confident Master Marko will be back to his best tomorrow.
The son of Contributor will race at Ascot Park for the first time in nearly a year.
Since then, Master Marko has placed six times, had a win on his home track and finished just outside the money at the Timaru Cup.
While he did not come through that journey as well as Tyler would have hoped and he was rested from the Riverton meeting four days later, he is champing at the bit for action tomorrow under apprentice jockey Kendra Bakker’s 60kg, 4kg more than the field.
"He’s looking good. He’s always good, actually," Tyler said.
"He’s got quite a bit of weight to lug around so it’s going to be a big ask for him. But he’ll go a good race and it’s not a big field.
"Nothing much changes with him, really. He just eats and trains and works."
The bigger picture for Master Marko will be the Gore Cup on February 1.
That is also a target for stablemate Go Lotte, lining up alongside Master Marko in the McCallums Group Handicap tomorrow.
"She’s been disappointing, to be honest.
"She’s another one we’ll look at running at Gore over 2000m.
"We haven’t tried her over the distance so she’ll have a nice hit-out at Invercargill.
"I’m just hoping the track will have a bit of give in it. It already does and it’s usually a good surface there.
"She’ll be a runner’s chance, I would say."
Tyler is excited about the chances of classy 3-year-old Pure Glam in the Entain/NZB Insurance Pearl Series maiden.
"I think she’s a high-quality horse.
"She’s a little bit nervy, so we’ve been really patient with her. We’re just trying to keep her at home and tick a few boxes before we look at a big dance.
"But she’s got real quality and she will take some beating if we get everything right."
It was an exciting weekend for the Tyler stable as highly rated mare Indie Ardie claimed her third win in a thrilling dead heat at Trentham.
"Her main target is Rimutaka in two weeks.
"She came through really well. I couldn’t be happier with her."
