Time After Time is on target for a crack at a significant family double on New Year’s Day.

The former Hong Kong sprinter has been set for the Gr.1 Sistema Railway Stakes – a race his mother Recurring won for Sydney trainer Gerald Ryan in 2005.

Time After Time turned in an eye-catching New Zealand debut in the Listed Counties Bowl at Pukekohe where he was hunting for room down the straight before finishing a close seventh.

“He didn’t have a lot of luck and if a few of those gaps had opened up he would have finished closer,” said Margaret Carter, who prepares the seven-year-old with husband Tim.

The Cambridge couple are now racing Time After Time with his Hong Kong owner David Kam.

“He’s our number one client in Hong Kong and we’ve always had a few horses for him,” Carter said.

“This one has got a few joint problems so we have to manage him carefully and we’re still learning about him, but we know the ability he’s got.”

The son of Danehill Dancer won five races in Hong Kong and last year he finished runner-up to the two-time Horse of the Year Ambitious Dragon in the Gr.1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup at Sha Tin.

Time After Time will have his final outing before the Railway in Saturday’s Gr.3 Lindauer Concorde Handicap at Ellerslie.

He is currently a $21 chance for the New Year’s Day feature sprint behind the $7 joint favourites Bounding and Ruud Awakening.

The winner of the Concorde will be exempt from the ballot for the Railway and in Ruud Awakening’s case that will be vital as her stakes form is out of the 18-month consideration period for the final make-up of the Ellerslie field.