Pukekohe trainer driver Brent Mangos is rolling the dice with Major Star in Sunday's Hannon Memorial at Oamaru.
Mangos has brought the 6yr old to the South Island as part of a plan to vastly improve Major Star's New Zealand Trotting Cup ranking.
The Auckland Trotting Club Syndicate owned gelding is anchored at the bottom of the rankings in 39th for New Zealand harness racing's richest prize.
That prompted the syndicate and Mangos to turn their gaze to the feature racing in Canterbury and North Otago.
''In the North Island you've got no show of getting up in the rankings,'' Mangos said.
''They'll probably run two races and he probably wouldn't beat Ohoka Punter anyway.
''If he ran in the first three on Sunday or the next week, it would probably cut his ranking in half. So that's one of the reasons he's here.''
Major Star had one minor hiccup with his travel arrangements. He had to stay an extra night in Bulls and arrived at Ken Barron's West Melton property only yesterday.
That aside, race fitness will not be a problem for the pacer, who won at Alexandra Park last month and beat Besotted and Voluntad at the Pukekohe workouts on Saturday.
''We'll just see how he progresses - we'll give him two or three starts and see if he's good enough to leave down here for cup week.
''If not, he'll just go back home. He's racing pretty good. I know he's only been racing his class, but I think he's going all right.
The Hannon Memorial and the New Brighton Cup are Major Star's immediate targets before Mangos considers the next step in the campaign.
''It gives us a bit of an idea where he's at. If he runs in the first four or five he'll probably go on to Addington on the 25th and then just see how he goes.''
Arguably his best performance in defeat was in the group 1-4yr old division of the 2014 Harness Jewels, when he was just a nose off beating Franco Nelson. The latter went on to run second in last year's New Zealand Cup.
