Star Boy has been a handy sprinter for connections, with the Brett Cavanough trained seven-year-old a seven-time winner from 26 starts, earning over $300,000 in prizemoney in the process.
During his career the Pluck gelding has won a TAB Highway at Warwick Farm, the Parkes Satellite Sprint and Muswellbrook's feature sprints the Aberdeen Cup and Skellatar Sprint.
Since winning the Skellatar in March 2020, Star Boy hasn't been in the winner's circle, and has been racing above his grade in Listed and Group contests.
"He is just hard to place at the moment," Brett Cavanough said.
"We've had to place him in listed races, and he is not up to the big boys, and he is probably in between grades."
On Saturday, the Scone galloper drops back to Benchmark 78 grade when contesting the 1100m Ned Whisky Handicap at Rosehill Gardens, but he has been lugged with 63kg, and will carry 61kg after Jenny Duggan's claim.
"He is going good, but I'm just worried about 61kg," Cavanough said.
"Jenny has won for us before, and we have full confidence in her, but we are just worried he has a bit too much weight to carry."
Cavanough said he was torn on whether the weight would stop him on Saturday.
"Apart from that, he is working well, and he is going as good as we can get him," Cavanough said.
"It's hard to make a case that he can't win and a case that he can win. He is working like he can win, but he is just planted with that number (Benchmark 84) alongside of him that hurts him."
In two runs back following a lengthy 55-week spell, Star Boy was well beaten when running into Nature Strip and Wild Ruler in The Group 3 TAB Concorde Stakes earlier last month.
Following that effort, Star Boy led them up in a very smart Open Handicap sprint at Warwick Farm on October 4, going down to Lord Olympus but only beaten 2.2 lengths at the finish.
'This prep, he ran into the big boys first up (in the Concorde) and a few things went wrong," Cavanough said.
"He went okay last time. It ended up being a good race, but he wasn't beaten far."
Cavanough said a surprise win at decent odds ($31 with TAB) wouldn't surprise him on Saturday, and he expected his old stager to lead from gate four.
"We know he can go well. You just have to go back though his form and Eduardo couldn't cross him," Cavanough said.
"He is in a winnable race, but as I said, the weight is my only concern."
