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By Ray Hickson

It seems Cliff House doesn’t mind waiting an extra day for his shot at Big Dance eligibility in the $100,000 Grand Hotel & Bottle Shop Wellington Cup (1700m) as he enjoyed some sun and a pick of grass to pass the time with the postponement to Monday.

Trainer Tim Donnelly gave the six-year-old some light work on the treadmill, which he says Cliff House enjoys, to keep him ticking over and says even though he has top weight and the outside barrier he’s very well placed.

Trainer Tim Donnelly (Pic: Bradley Photos)

In fact, he said the outside barrier will give Cliff House his best chance to book a spot in the $3 million Big Dance later this year.

“He actually doesn’t mind covering ground,’’ Donnelly said.

“If you look at a number of his wins, the Gundagai Cup and his Highway at Randwick, he’s three or four deep the whole way. He’s a big horse so it doesn’t really worry him.

“I definitely wanted to draw out at Wellington, I didn’t want him getting caught in on the fence.

“He’s a momentum horse so he can get out and get going when he wants to.”

Cliff House only had two runs last preparation, a slashing fourth in the Goulburn Cup before he bled in a race at Randwick in September and had to be spelled.

It’s clear to Donnelly that he’s come back in outstanding touch with a first-up second over 1200m at Canberra before going down narrowly in the National Sprint (1400m) earlier this month.

He’ll carry 61kg at Wellington and be giving away between 3.5kg and 7kg to all his rivals.

“He ran second in a Listed race the other day so you’ve got to pay the penalty,’’ Donnelly said.

“He’s a horse on the way up with only two runs back this preparation, the other chances in the race have been going around for a while.”

It’s no surprise that Donnelly would like to give Cliff House another chance in his home town Wagga Cup in early May after he ran sixth behind Fawkner Park last year.

That will be his fifth run for the preparation as Donnelly wants to give him another to bridge the five weeks between Wellington and Wagga.

“I possibly might go to Scone as well as long as he’s in form,’’ he said.

“I think 1600m is his perfect distance, he’s won at 1800m and he’s only gone to 2000m once in the Wagga Cup last year when Fawkner Park outclassed them. But he actually ran well.”

All the fields, form and replays for Monday's Wellington meeting