ROD Symons is hoping he and his fellow Bendigo trainers can make their presence felt on Bendigo Cup day.
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With as many as a dozen locally-trained horses set to see action across the nine-race card on Wednesday, he feels there should be more than a few good opportunities to fly the local flag.
Symons - one of the region's longest serving trainers - will have one solid chance of his own with his last start winner Makusha contesting the 1600m benchmark 70 (race four).
The four-year-old gelding has been a model of consistency this campaign, scoring a well-deserved win over the mile at Echuca two weeks ago, after minor placings in his two previous starts, both at Bendigo.
A cup day win would undoubtedly be popular, with Makusha's ownership including several past and present Bendigonians, among them Patrick Falconer, Robert Cook, Brian Bottomley (now based in Melbourne) and Gisborne's Steven Ousley.
"He's raring to go," Symons said about Makusha.
"After his win at Echuca, one of the owners put the idea in my head of running him at Kyneton on their cup day, but Bendigo was the number one priority.
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"He's been a good horse along the way, but has run in some tough races in town. But when you are a three-year-old and have nowhere else to go, you've got to go somewhere.
"He's been nicely placed this time, which was the aim, and we're starting to see the benefits."
Makusha will be chasing his third career win from 13 starts.
The son of Magnus has won once before at Bendigo, ticking off his maiden just over 12 months ago at start number three.
Symons has previously enjoyed success on Bendigo Cup day, most notably in 2004, when he landed a double with Fifeshire and Ruben.
He had a cup runner as recently as 2015 with Savannah Moon in the race won by the Gai Waterhouse-trained The Offer.
He's been nicely placed this time, which was the aim, and we're starting to see the benefits
- Rod Symons
Symons was delighted to see some Bendigo representation in this year's cup in the form of Wertheimer.
The Matthew Enright-trained six-year-old was a brave fourth in last year's cup behind High Emocean after looming into the race along the rails at the 200m.
While he is the outsider of the field at 150-1 in the early TAB market, Symons would love to see Wertheimer run another bold race.
"It looked like it was going to win the cup 200m out at big odds. You'd love to see him run like that again," Symons said.
"He went alright in the Horsham Cup the other day, but was three-wide the whole way.
"He (Enright) also has Buoyantsea, who is locally owned, an has won a couple of stakes races in New Zealand, so he has a few irons in the fire there.
"Hopefully the locals can do a bit of damage."
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