Five To Midnight and King Kamada will go head to head on their home track on Saturday ahead of another clash in an upcoming northern feature.

The stable mates will firstly give trainer Lisa Latta a strong hand in the Gr.3 Hotel Coachman Manawatu Cup before they head to Ellerslie.

Five To Midnight showed high promise as a stayer last term and the four-year-old has impressed in his three starts this season.

He won fresh-up over 1600m before running third in the Listed Feilding Cup at his open class debut and he was having his first race for five weeks when he comfortably won an open handicap at Trentham last time out.

“He’s just so much stronger this time in,” Latta said. “He galloped really well on Tuesday morning and he’s thriving.”

Both Five To Midnight and King Kamada have the Gr.3 Laser Plumbing Te Puke City of Auckland at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day on their programmes.

King Kamada had a testing season last term, including three runs over 3200m. He was given a much easier spring this year and Saturday’s race will be just his fourth for the season.

“I’m really happy with him and he’s going in the right direction,” Latta said.

King Kamada was placed in both the Gr.3 City of Auckland and Gr.2 Avondale Cups last season and was runner-up in the Manawatu Cup.

He also ran second in both the Gr.1 Auckland Cup and Avondale Cup the previous season.

Latta has 17 acceptors for Awapuni and among them is the classy sprinter-miler Mighty Solomon, who has not raced since January, will resume in the Gr.2 Kamada Park Manawatu Challenge Stakes.

“He’s been in work a long time and he usually goes well fresh,” Latta said.