Top colt Trusting will eye victory in the Gr 1 $A1 million Newmarket Handicap at Flemington on Saturday through the addition of blinkers for the first time.
He will make his return to racing in the feature sprint following a six-month break after stamping himself in his first preparation as a three-year-old of the highest quality.
The son of Tale Of The Cat wore the blinkers when he finished third in an 800 metre trial at Flemington earlier this week.
"We were just experimenting. We've been working him in slow work in blinkers and trialled him with them on and it really sharpened him up," trainer John Thompson told AAP.
"I think he needs them on in a race like the Newmarket because he's one of those horses who gets his head up and thinks a bit and they might focus him up.
"If there is hot speed early he'll probably be out the back and hitting the line. It's a nice starting off point for him up the straight."
Trusting has won two of his six starts and emulated the great Lonhro with his defeat of the older horses in the Gr 2 Warwick Stakes at his third appearance.
Thompson said the colt, who beat all but Denman in the Gr 1 Golden Rose last August, would return to Sydney after the Newmarket.
"He'll have two weight-for-age runs in the Canterbury Stakes and the George Ryder and then he'll go into the Doncaster."
Thompson is the private trainer to Nathan Tinkler's Patinack Farm who purchased Trusting for $300,000 from Curraghmore's 2008 premier draft at Karaka.
Out of Zabeel's Gr 2 Sandown Classic winning daughter Laebeel, he was sold by the farm on behalf of John Camilleri's Fairway Thoroughbreds.
