Gai Waterhouse's Sacramento could create history in the Canberra Cup

Just four horses have managed the feat since the Cup's inception in 1926.

And the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained six-year-old could become the first to pull it off since Macknuckle in 2009-10.

Reingard (1985-86), Crazy Notion (1961-62) and Spec (1926-27) were the other three who saluted in consecutive years.

Bott said it would be a special moment for not only himself, but the couple of Canberra owners involved in Sacramento.

It's why they'll be back at Thoroughbred Park on Monday to defend their crown - rather than head to Sydney to have a crack at the group 3 Sky High Stakes (2000 metres) at Rosehill on Saturday.

That's despite there being an extra $150,000 in prizemoney on offer in Sydney compared with the $200,000 listed Canberra Cup (2000m).

"I'd be delighted. He's a nice, tough horse, a tough campaigner. He shows up each prep and runs a good solid race for us," Bott said.

"I'd certainly love to see him get it. He's deserving of it.

"A few of the owners in the horse are from Canberra, so I think they like being able to get down and support the local cup and it means something to them if they can pick it up. Keen to get back down there again."

Sacramento's the $4.60-second-favourite behind Zeyrek ($4), although the latter could opt to run in the Sky High instead.

But regardless of where the Hawkes-trained gelding ended up, Sacramento has a not-so-secret weapon on board - jockey Tim Clark.

Clark's made the Cup his own in recent years.

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He's won four of the past seven - including going back-to-back in 2016-17 with Hippopus (Waterhouse) and Dark Eyes (Waterhouse and Bott).

"A good record at the track, a good record in the race. He's won it a couple of times for us. He might've won it two or three times," Bott said of Clark.

"He's been good for us. He's won it a few times on different horses, so hopefully go back-to-back for us."

Bott was happy with how Sacramento has been going.

While he's yet to win this preparation, he's been fairly consistent with a fourth in the Randwick City Stakes (2000m) last Saturday his latest run.

Bott felt some of those runs had been in good company and he hadn't been far off saluting.

Sacramento will back up as Bott eyed off a possible tilt at the Sydney Cup (3200m) at Randwick on April 8.

"Look, he's had a few runs this campaign. I feel he's been in good order, run some competitive races and probably [had] some tougher company," he said.

"Probably been a little bit more, little bit more dour this prep, but we've sort of just freshened him up this week.

"I think the backup may suit him going in. So he's had a different lead-up to what he had last time in, but I feel he's in good order.

"There was the option to continue racing him over a bit further, which we still might do later in the preparation - he might be on a Sydney Cup campaign."

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