Peter Lock has designs on a cups’ treble with his capable, but unsound galloper Red Dragon.

The Te Aroha trainer picked off the opening leg on Boxing Day, the middle leg awaits on Saturday in the Coastwood Lockwood Homes Thames Cup and the final test will come at Wellington later in the month.

“He won the Pirongia Cup over 2000 metres at the picnic meeting and that was a nice hit out for him,” Lock said.

“I’ve got Leith Innes on him at Thames and he’s on fire at the moment so if everything goes well I’ll probably take the horse down to Trentham for the Summer Cup.”

Red Dragon has won five of his 32 starts and has a record that could have been so much better, according to Lock.

“He’s had joint issues and we’ve had to place him right,” he said. “He had one long break due to that and we have to ice him twice a day.

“He’s been a bit of a handful, but you don’t mind that if they’ve got the ability.

“He’s a half-brother to Spring Rain, who was top class, and this guy looked like he could have been a superstar, but every time I got him hard fit he would go sore. It’s been a hard road.”

Lock said shifting his training operation from Te Rapa to Te Aroha had given Red Dragon a new lease on life.

“Since we’ve been here he’s been a lot better and I’ve never seen a plough so good – it’s been a saviour.”

Last-start placegetter Travel Wise was runner-up in the Thames Cup 12 months and looks a strong chance again, as does Nothing Trivial.

He was a close seventh in the Gr.2 Waikato Gold Cup two runs back and wasn’t far away when he filled a similar placing in a Dunstan Feeds Qualifier at Ellerslie on Boxing Day.