Richard Hughes hopes well-backed Jenningsbet Northumberland Plate favourite Circus Of Rome can pull off a long-term plan at Newcastle on Saturday.
The four-year-old is a general 3/1 market leader for the heritage handicap following sustained support and is two-from-two at Gosforth Park in his career to date.
He's had two outings this season to tee him up for Saturday and the trainer told Friday's Nick Luck Daily Podcast: “He’s definitely snowballed in the market, that’s for sure. I’m quite surprised at the amount of money going on him.
“When we won there in August last year we said ‘right, we’ll come back for the Northumberland Plate’ but he still has to get the two miles. He did get a mile-and-six as a three-year-old which stands him in good steady, though.
“We felt we’ve protected his mark a little this year. We ran him to get races into him at trips probably shorter than ideal and he ran very respectably and he’s definitely a better and stronger horse than last year."
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