A brother and sister provide Wingatui trainer Alex Freeman with two chances over the staying trip at Wingatui tomorrow.
Nancho Lass and Big Meadsy, both out of the Hereward The Wake mare Wydawake, will tackle the 2200m maiden, and Freeman is leaning towards the older Nancho Lass to deliver at her 12th career start.
The 5yr-old mare was a bold front-runner at Wingatui last Monday, just fading in the final furlong to finish third behind Kings Road.
Freeman opted to back her up from last week.
''It was a huge run,'' he said.
''It was six weeks between starts and it was her second shot at 2200m.''
Nancho Lass may be taking on the longer distances these days, but Freeman hopes the shorter races she competed in earlier in her career will help get her across the line - if not tomorrow, then sooner rather than later.
The daughter of Mr Nancho has an unusual action, which forced Freeman to try her over the shorter distances even though she is bred to stay.
''She's got a funny action, and she hits the ground really hard,'' he said.
''She gallops and she wants to go, but she jars up for three days after that.
''It's taken a bit of time and work to be able to gallop without having those problems niggling at her. She can gallop three days a week now.''
Nancho Lass had her first six starts over the sprint distances before moving up to the mile at Oamaru in August.
Her first start over 2000m produced a fifth at Gore in late September, before she put together a fourth and a third in her two starts at today's distance of 2200m.
''We taught her to sprint, because we knew she would be able to stay, but just with the few little issues she had last year, we hadn't been able to get her over the ground.
''So we carried on sprinting her to teach her to get to the front. With a bit of luck, she could just about get the choccies . . . ''Big Meadsy, by contrast, has been building towards the 2200m in his three starts, making his debut over 1400m at Wingatui in October.
''He has definitely been looking for more ground,'' Freeman said.
''He's a big horse and immature. I gave him his first race over 1400m, then two races over the mile but he's bred to go two miles, really, so we're in the process of quietly stepping him up.''
''He's such a big horse that in the last two starts he's drawn too good. He hasn't had any room to get out and open up and gallop.''
