Otaki trainer Johno Benner will be hoping for a late Christmas present when he heads to Ellerslie on Boxing Day with his promising gelding Tikemyson.

The five-year-old son of Highly Recommended is on track to contest the Dunstan Horse Feeds Stayers’ Championship Final (2400m) after recording his third career victory in the Dunstan Horse Feeds Championship Qualifier (2200m) at his home track on Thursday.

Backed into $2.60 favouritism, Tikemyson settled three back on the fence for Australian hoop Harry Grace, who bided his time before navigating his charge into clear running room four-wide with 500m to go. He entered a dogfight with fellow Otaki-trained runner Free Spirit down the home straight and was able to get the better of his rival in the concluding stages to win by a nose.

Benner, who also part-owns the gelding, was pleased with the victory and was full of praise for Grace’s ride.

“It was a bold move by the young fella (Grace) to go to the fence. I said to him ‘just be mindful the tempo is going to come out of this’, but he did a good job of containing him,” Benner said.

“Although he was over-racing a little bit, he was able to contain him enough. Maybe that blunted his finish a little too. They don’t generally come from three back the fence when they are walking and win.”

Benner said Tikemyson has taken a lot of improvement into this season and he is looking forward to testing him against stiffer competition at Ellerslie next month.

“He (Tikemyson) has come a long way because last preparation he would have gone over those horses or the running rail, you wouldn’t know. To get out of traffic and close off like he did, he is definitely a horse that is fulfilling what we think he can do,” he said.

“Free Spirit has won seven or eight races, so I think this form might stack up and hopefully he can head to Auckland for Boxing Day now for the Dunstan Final. It is another 200m and he has got to continue to settle, but it might be a nice race for him.”

Grace echoed Benner’s sentiments, and he believes Tikemyson will handle the step up in grade.

“The horse is much better this prep, he showed that in both runs before today,” he said.

“We stepped up in trip and it wasn’t run to suit him, but he was absolutely the best horse in the race and he should improve up in grade.”