Hocus Pocus has been restricted by injury to just three starts and she gets an opportunity at Otaki on Saturday to make up for lost time.

The filly was successful on debut at Wanganui last season, where she beat the subsequent Group winner Serena Miss, before she finished fifth in the Listed Wellesley Stakes at Trentham.

“She went shin sore after the Wellesley,” trainer Gerald Innes said. “She went to the paddock with five other fillies and she got into a kicking match with one of them.

“She had a massive haematoma down her side and the vets opened her up and there was some tissue damage.”

Hocus Pocus will have her second start back this term in the Clark & Co Realty 3YO after an unlucky run when unplaced on the final day of the Hastings carnival.

“I said to Nivesh (Teeluck) that from the draw to have her right up there, but she came out half a length behind them and then she had traffic problems in the straight,” Innes said. “She’s come through the race really well.

“Most of the Per Incantos go well and I think she’ll be pretty competitive.”

With Teeluck committed to his employer Karen Zimmerman’s runner Suo Lin Nang, Hocus Pocus will be ridden by three kilo claimer Laura Werner.

Innes will also have a major interest at Saturday’s Ashburton meeting where his promising Darci Brahma filly Strolling Vagabond will continue her southern campaign.

A last-start second in the controversial Timaru race where half the field was stranded in the gates, another bold showing in the Lane Neave Maiden will see her in action at the New Zealand Cup carnival.

“There’s a $30,000 race on the first day at Christchurch, so if she goes well on Saturday it would be silly to bring her home,” Innes said.