Sunday’s Thomas Green Handicap (1600m) at Oamaru could put Southland trainer Lisa Vaughan on a path towards saddling her second Gr.3 Martin Collins New Zealand Cup (3200m) runner in the last three years.

Vaughan ran accomplished mare Asathought in the time-honoured Riccarton staying showpiece in 2022, finishing a creditable seventh.

This year’s edition of the $400,000 New Zealand Cup is looming large on the horizon for Lochnaberry, who Vaughan bought for just $1,400 on Gavelhouse.com in 2019.

Lochnaberry has won four of her 21 starts, and she rose to a new level as a five-year-old last season with three wins from eight races including a dominant three-length victory in the Invercargill Gold Cup (2600m) in February.

Sunday’s Rating 79 handicap will be Lochnaberry’s first appearance since March. She has been allotted a 60kg topweight, with apprentice jockey Bailey Rogerson reducing that impost by 2kg.

“We were thrilled with what she did last season,” said Vaughan, who shares ownership of the Jakkalberry mare with her husband Simon Culhane, along with Mike Fraser, Jo and Neil Fraser, Jesse Vaughan, Benji Culhane and Bryan Dunlop.

“We started thinking about the New Zealand Cup after that. If we’re able to get enough racing into her between now and November, that would be our ultimate goal with her.

“But our attempts to build up her fitness and get her up and running this spring have been a bit handicapped by the weather in our part of the country, so we’ll have to see how things go over the next few weeks.

“Even if we run out of time to get her ready for the New Zealand Cup, there’s plenty of other nice staying races through the summer and autumn that we can look at with her instead.”

The TAB currently offers odds of $61 for Lochnaberry in the New Zealand Cup, which will be run on November 16. The market is headed by Mary Louise ($9), Aljay ($12), Fierce Flight ($12), Nest Egg ($12) and Dionysus ($14).

Vaughan is pleased with how Lochnaberry is shaping up for her six-year-old season, but expects her to find the 1600m distance too short first-up on Sunday.

“It’s going to be more like a trial for her this week,” Vaughan said. “It’ll definitely be too short. We’ll just be happy to see her finding the line nicely towards the end of the race.

“I’m really happy with how she’s coming up. She’s training well and definitely seems to have got stronger this time in. She just feels like a different mare. Having another year on her has been the making of her.”

Vaughan has three other runners kicking off new campaigns at Oamaru on Sunday, with Cockahoop in the JJ’s Gore (1400m), Bonsai Bob in the Hokonui Suzuki (1200m) and Hazel May in the Grant Farming Partnership (1200m).

“They’re all nice, handy horses and they’ve been working pretty well,” Vaughan said. “It’s a big trip up to Oamaru and they’re all first-up, so we’re going into it with limited expectations. We’ll just treat it as a trial. Hopefully the track isn’t too heavy.

“I’ll just be happy to see them do things right in the running, finish off nicely and come through the races in good order. Then we can build from there and hopefully have a bit to look forward to with all of them.”