Marc Conners's season has been top-heavy with minor placings but a change of fortune this week could provide the perfect building block to add to his metropolitan tally of wins at Randwick.
Conners celebrated a city win on the Kensington circuit on Wednesday when the Hong Kong-bound Speedy Wally got the verdict in a photo finish.
He will saddle up juvenile Princess Command in Saturday's TAB Early Quaddie Plate (1200m) and if she perform to expectations, Conners will have doubled his season tally of city winners in the space of four days.
The Warwick Farm horseman had produced two winners in town before Wednesday's meeting and 15 across all tracks in a season in which he's had to settle for many minor prizes.
"It was good to get a win. I've had 28 seconds this year," Conners said.
Princess Command is $26 in early markets but Conners rates her chances more highly.
A winner at Newcastle on debut last year, the filly finished fourth to subsequent Golden Slipper heroine Mossfun in the Inglis Nursery and resumed with a fifth to Shaumari at Warwick Farm last month.
An unplaced run during the Wagga Wagga carnival on May 1 has been attributed to a firm track and with Randwick expected to be in the dead to slow range on Saturday, Conners is hoping Princess Command can bounce back.
"If you take away her last start when the track was too hard for her, she is a big chance," Conners said.
"It took her a little bit to get over that but she's fine now."
The two-year-old race has attracted 10 runners with the Gai Waterhouse-trained Almalad, a winner of his only start at Gosford in December, the favourite.