One of the forgotten horses of the open class pacing ranks this season is chipping away quite nicely thank you very much.

Because he’s not nominated for the New Zealand Trotting Cup, Field Marshal isn’t probably getting the notice he deserves as he points towards the New Zealand Free-For-All a few days after the big dance at Addington.

But the Tim Butt trained pacer, who has come back as a five-year-old in splendid order, may put himself in the spotlight in the next couple of weeks with a surprise twist in his preparation potentially on the horizon.

A little frustrated with workouts and trials that equate to nothing more than a sprint home, Butt is toying with the idea of lining the three-time Group One winner up in the Ashburton Flying Stakes – but nothing is confirmed yet.

“I’ll have to have a chat with the owners first, but it is a possibility,” Butt said.

“We would gain a lot more out of going to a race like that than returning to the workouts and trials. He can just be driven quietly and get a good run under his belt before Cup Week.”

The entire looked pretty on song yesterday when he won at the Ashburton workouts beating Piccadilly Princess and Dream About Me in a sprint from the 800 metre mark after Dexter Dunn surged the imposing pacer forward.

For a man who has had a lot of top line horses during his illustrious training career, Butt is certainly fizzing about the prospect of having his star performer back at the races.

“He’s come back up great, he really looks like a stallion.

“He’s still lazy though, he just does what he has to do and no more but I’m lucky that he is a pretty natural athlete.”

Should Butt and Field Marshal’s owners, Syd and Shona Brown elect to go to the Ashburton Flying Stakes on Monday week then they could rest easy in the fact they wouldn’t have to find a driver with Christen Me not heading to Ashburton meaning Dunn would be available to take the reins.

Mark Purdon gave his two runners good marks for their first up efforts.

Piccadilly Princess worked forward into a strong wind down the back straight for Tim Williams while Dream About Me followed her forward and went to the line comfortably.

“It was good start, about where I thought they both would be.

“At this stage both of them will come to the Ashburton meeting and then we will go from there.”

It was a big 24 hours for Dream About Me after her dam, Splendid Dreams foal a full-sister to her overnight Monday.

The filly, who automatically has a massive price tag attached to her due to her breeding is also a half-sister to Christen Me.

Matt Markham