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By Greg Prichard

New Tycoon is a proven big weight carrier and that is just one good reason to be confident about his chances in the $35,000 Club Taree Hopkins Livermore Cup over 1400m at Taree on Friday.

It’s no surprise that with all of the good signs surrounding him he is rated the $3 favourite on TAB Fixed Odds.

The seven-year-old, trained by Adam Duggan at Gosford, has won two of his last three starts and carried 61kg in each victory. Last year he also won another race with 60.5kg and all three of those wins were at the provincials.

He was allotted top weight of 62kg in the Cup and will carry 60.5 after apprentice Bailey Wheeler’s 1.5kg claim.

New Tycoon has also won at two of his three starts over 1400m and has twice won at 1600m as well, so there is no threat of him not seeing out the distance. Plus, he has won three times on soft tracks and Taree is currently rated a Soft 6.

“The horse does carry weight well,” Duggan said. “I could’ve gone for a three kilo-claiming apprentice, but I wanted a little bit of experience on him. Bailey rides pretty well and I thought he’d suit this horse, racing up on the speed.

“He’s definitely weighted up to his best, but he’s going really well. He’s in good form and he’s a very happy horse at home, so I can’t see any reason why he won’t run well again. He’s showing all of the positive signs.”

Four of New Tycoon’s six wins have been at the provincials and he has been placed twice in the city. He hasn’t raced at a country track for almost two years, so it was only natural that since he has performed well at provincial and city tracks he would be weighted above 60kg.

New Tycoon was entered for a race on the Kensington track at Randwick on Wednesday, but Duggan scratched after he drew wide.

“I also had this race at Taree in mind,” he said. “I thought ‘it’s a nice little Country Cup race, nearly $17,000 to the winner, why not have a crack at it’?

“I’m very optimistic about his chances. I can’t see him not running well. He tries hard and can run a mile, so he should run out the 1400 nice and strong. I just hope it stays in the soft range - he loves the soft ground.”

Gates open at 11am for Friday’s big meeting, which features eight races and 109 acceptors. Entry is $10 (free for members). The first race is at 12.30pm, with full TAB, bistro, bar and betting facilities.

All the fields, form and replays for Friday's Taree meeting