Ron Stubbs admits it will be a 'bittersweet' feeling if Bianco Vilano can cause an upset when he heads to Moonee Valley on Saturday.
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Stubbs' stable star won the SDRA Country Championships Qualifier at Albury last year before going on to run fourth in the lucrative $500,000 final at Randwick.
The Albury trainer is once again setting Bianco Vilano for the Newhaven Park Country Championships this year with the qualifier to be run at Albury on February 18.
The first two placegetters will qualify for the final which has doubled in prizemoney to $1 million which will be run at Randwick on April 6.
Bianco Vilano is set to have his final hit-out before the Championships Qualifier at Moonee Valley when he contests the $130,000 Benchmark 78 Handicap, (1200m).
Star hoop Craig Williams will take the ride with the galloper rated as a $34-chance in pre-post markets.
And while Stubbs would be delighted to see Bianco Vilano claim the second metropolitan victory of his blossoming career, a win would also rule him ineligible for the Country Championships.
Horses who have won more than five races and had more than 20 starts are ineligible for the $1million feature.
Bianco Vilanco is right on the threshold after having had 19 starts for five wins and seven minor placings for more than $250,000 in career earnings.
"If he wins another race he is ineligible for the Country Championships," Stubbs said
"I would still like the horse to win on Saturday but it would be bittersweet I guess in regards to the Country Championships... but I would still take it," Stubbs said.
Bianco Vilano was having his fifth start of his preparation last year when he won the Country Championships Qualifier.
However, this year Stubbs has chosen a different path with the gelding who has had a seven week freshen-up since his last start where he finished unplaced at Randwick.
"After his last start we gave the horse a freshen-up," he said.
"We have drawn wide on Saturday in gate 11 which is going to force us to settle back in the field.
"I just want to see him attacking the line.
"It's in a Benchmark 78 Saturday class, so you can argue that this race is going to be stronger than the Championships Qualifier.
"So it will be a great lead-up in that sense and a bit of a gauge of where the horse is at."
Bianco Vilano has had five previous starts in metropolitan grade.
The five year old gelding won a Class Three Highway Handicap in April last year to stamp himself as a galloper with more than average ability.
He has also contested races the calibre of the $500,000 Country Championships Final, $2m Kosciuszko and the $250,000 Barn Dance.
