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By Ray Hickson

It’d be fair to say describe honest mare Vetoed as somewhat high maintenance and trainer Dennis Dwane says a lot of work goes into keeping her in the right frame of mind.

In six starts for the Lismore trainer she’s only failed once, and that was when thrown in the deep end in the NRRA Country Championships earlier this year, but he’s confident the five-year-old is close to another win at Murwillumbah on Thursday.

Vetoed is one of around half a dozen horses the 66-year-old trainer has in work and four of them are engaged at the meeting.

“We put her in a yard and leave her alone and if she plays up we put her in another yard,’’ Dwane said.

“You’ve got to keep her happy, she’s a lot better than she used to be and she’s going well.”

Dwane sees barrier one, plus the drop of 100m, as a big asset for Vetoed in the D & D Electrical Handicap (1200m) as he is adamant the outside gate is what brought her undone last start.

She wasn’t the best away at Ballina two weeks ago and had to work to get up outside the leader and eventual winner Simply Amazing and while the margin on the line was four lengths he said the effort was solid.

“The horse that beat her goes well, it had the inside alley and we had the outside alley,’’ he said.

“You had to be there that day because it was very heavy and if you weren’t up there you couldn’t win. So she did a good job.

Vetoed runs second at Ballina on June 12

“We’ll be looking to be there and hopefully she can win. I think she can win it.”

Stablemate Stoinka will have a similar problem to what Vetoed faced last start when he attempts to overcome a wide alley and put himself in the finish.

The gelding has a handy record on his home track and Dwane said he’ll appreciate a surface that may be more in his favour than what he encountered when midfield at Casino a month ago.

“What can you do? He doesn’t like a wet track, when he got a dry at Glen Innes he won,’’ he said.

“He has the outside alley but has a good rider so I can’t ask for any more.”

Octavio and Dupont will match motors in the Our Kids Handicap (1550m) and Dwane said he could make a case for both to run well.

The former showed a return to form with a third placing at Grafton two weeks ago and the trainer said he’s looking for more ground than what he’s been tackling of late.

“He went well last start and he’ll be hard to beat,’’ he said.

“He needs 1500m to a mile and it was a bit quick for him. He’s run a good last three (furlongs), he ran at his best last start he just needs it further.”

Dupont has had 10 starts on wet tracks and is yet to fill a placing so Dwane said he should have the chance to replicate his best recent effort at Inverell a month ago where he gave a big sight at odds.

“He just doesn’t get the right tracks, he can probably lead them and he’ll run all right,’’ he said.

All the fields, form and replays for Thursday's Lismore meeting