The Racing Victoria veterinary department will have the final say on whether Future Score takes his place in the Listed Pakenham Cup (2500m) on Saturday.
The Matt Cumani-trained stayer was scratched from the Melbourne Cup after presenting with lameness in his off-foreleg.
Cumani says Future Score presents with lameness most mornings before being fully warmed up.
“He’s got subtle lameness in the off-fore which varies depending on what time of day you see him,” Cumani said.
“If he’s warmed up in the morning, you can barely see it, but if you look at him in the afternoon when he’s a bit cold and standing around, he’s a bit arthritic on that off-foreleg.”
Cumani said the stayer was moving as well as he ever has.
Future Score finished third in last year’s Zipping Classic (2400m) at Sandown and has only been sighted three times this year, the latest when sixth in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup (2500m) on October 23.
Cumani said he did consider starting Future Score in the Zipping Classic at Caulfield last Saturday.
“But we thought this would be a weaker race,” Cumani said.
“He is going into the race with eight weeks between runs so it is going to be a bit of a challenge for him, but he’s going great and looks really well.”
Stablemate Team Captain takes his place on Saturday chasing a third straight win since joining Cumani’s team, the most recent being over 2800m at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day.
Cumani considered starting Team Captain in last week’s Sandown Cup (3200m) at Caulfield.
“We made the decision to give him another go in the 2400-metre range to see what he can achieve at that distance,” Cumani said.
“If he looks effective over 2400 metres then we can include a few more races we might have excluded if he looked like a pure 3200-metre horse.
“That’s why I wanted to give him this challenge rather than run around in a pure staying race.”