Nominations for Sunday's Central District Racing Association country championship heat came out on Tuesday and Greg Hook was among them but, being a realist, straight away turned his attention to a few of Sunday's other races at Mudgee.
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But, as the Rylstone trainer says, "we got lucky".
Of the 22 nominations for the $150,000 qualifier, Hook's Blue Collar Boy rated 20th, meaning had everyone accepted the four-year-old would have been sixth emergency.
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But Emma Gill's Free Ticket didn't accept, nor did Denis Consadine with Ceaseless, while four of Cameron Crockett's 10 nominations didn't make the jump either and, unfortunately, David Smith's big hope Bel Diablo picked up a virus.
Then Gayna Williams put a line through Kookabaa an hour after accepting, leaving the door open for the only emergency in the field, the last horse standing or sorts, Hook's Blue Collar Boy.
The bay gelding may well be the Stephen Bradbury of the CDRA heat, just without the win - yet.
"You can always dream," Hook said, Blue Collar Boy set to jump as his tiny stable's first country championship hopeful.
Hook currently has four horses in work. In comparison, Crockett has 52. Six of those will run in Sunday's qualifier.
Blue Collar Boy is owned by Hook's family, with his son and daughter picking up a share in the horse whether their father liked it or not.
"I didn't have a choice with this one," he laughed.
"They just jumped in … but we are lucky, we are rapt he got in to the heat.
"We had the qualifier set for him for a while but it didn’t look good there after noms … but a few things changed in other stables and we got lucky.
“Always dream to get them here and hope for the best. He only needs a good run and to keep out of trouble."
Blue Collar Boy hasn't had a lot of luck this preparation and in six starts in town - five of them highway handicaps at Rosehill - Hook's gelding has been checked and battled to work his way through the field.
There is one glimmering light though.
A third at Rosehill in November last year has given Hook enough belief the Denmarket by Blue White gelding is a potential bolter in a seriously fast field.
Hook says with the likes of Ori On Fire and Dean Mirfin's duo of I Am Capitan and I Am Magnificent the pace will be quick, but is backing Blue Collar Boy to sit back and make a run late on what he describes as tricky Mudgee track.
"Hopefully he'll make the best of it at the end. It's a hard track, up hill from about the 500, 600 mark … it's a bit of a climb," Hook said, Blue Collar Boy set to jump from barrier 14.
“It won't worry him being drawn out there. There's a tonne of speed, they won't be mucking around. They'll all be going pretty hard I think."
The CDRA country championship heat is scheduled to jump at 4.30pm. Race one will jump at 12.45pm.