His rival trainers have won Melbourne Cups, Golden Slippers and Cox Plates, but that hasn't stopped Dean Mirfin from hoping for an upset in Sunday's Bathurst Cup.
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Mirfin is the sole Bathurst trainer to have a runner in the $40,000 feature at Tyers Park, the annual race having attracted horses from the renowned stables of Richard Freedman, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott as well as Bjorn Baker.
Given the quality of the field, Mirfin knows his chance Sovereignaire is not only a long shot, but was simply lucky to earn a start.
"It's pretty hard to get runners in these races because all the horses from Sydney come out and take the spots," he said.
"Having people like Gai Waterhouse coming out to Bathurst, it's probably a sign of the times and is going to be happening more and more into the future, but it makes it hard."
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Still, Mirfin would not have nominated his eight-year-old Husson x Dream Machine gelding for the 1800m feature if he did not think he could be competitive.
Sovereignaire has four wins and eight placings from his 30 career starts, his most recent success coming in last September's Grenfell Cup.
"We targeted this race for him for the last couple of months, we thought it would be a nice race for him on his home track," the trainer said.
"While it is a strong race he does have a home track advantage, so he'll get a run and hopefully he'll knock a few of the Sydney horses out."
Dubbo trainer Garry Lunn is one of the other few country trainers in the event, with his mate Nightspun to be ridden from barrier 14 by Winona Costin.
Lunn's seven-year-old veteran has been in some of the best form of her 72-start career recently, with wins at Dubbo and Bathurst being scored in her past three starts.
The Bathurst Cup will jump at 4.30pm, while the first of eight races is set for 12.45pm.
