Veteran Aramayo the Hunter for Newcastle trainer Sam Kavanagh

Kavanagh, who relocated from the Upper Hunter last year, will have seven-year-old Aramayo, a $61 shot with Bet365 on Thursday, debuting for his stable at Newcastle in the $1 million 1300m race on Saturday.

The gelding, a winner of $1.6 million in prizemoney, has not raced since finishing last in a benchmark 100 handicap over the mile at Caulfield in May when trained by Chris Waller. He was then sold that month online to clients of Kavanagh for $100,000.

Just last year, Aramayo was a close second to Private Eye in the group 1 Epsom Handicap (1600m) at Randwick.

He trialled twice last month in preparation for The Hunter but Kavanagh conceded he was more suited to the mile and may need the run on Saturday.

"There's a lot of nice races over this period but he doesn't handle wet tracks, and that's where his form dropped off, so this was always the option to kick off and then onto the Festival Stakes and The Ingham, the old Villiers, or a trip to Queensland," Kavanagh said.

"But obviously having a runner locally is important to us and it's always been the plan to kick him off here and hopefully we have a bit of luck."

In Aramayo's favour has been warm weather this week and the likelihood of a fast track on Saturday.

"He wants it firm and his work here on Saturday morning when it was, was very good, so I'm happy with a firm deck," he said.

Kavanagh has also taken encouragement from Aramayo's record in Newcastle. The Spring Stakes (1600m) champion at the track in 2018 for Godolphin, Aramayo was also fourth in the Newmarket (1400m) this year.

Newcastle-based Welshman Ash Morgan rides Aramayo, which has gate eight.

"He likes it here, he's been training well, he's first-up for us, so he'll probably need the run, but we're hoping he'll have a bold run," Kavanagh said.

"He's a horse that gets back in his races and we've got a really big field on Saturday, so there will be a lot of speed, so he'll get back and hopefully he's running on late and if he could cause a surprise, we'd be over the moon."

The excitement of having a runner in The Hunter comes after Kavanagh's stable was hit by a virus in September, then the scratching of favourite Kayobi from the $500,000 Four Pillars two weeks ago because of illness.

Kavanagh said Aramayo had not been affected but Dashing Willoughby, which was going to run in the $300,000 The Beauford (2300m) on Saturday, was struck down.

"Kayobi's now gone for a break," he said. "It was a little bit disappointing with him being favourite for the Four Pillars but he'll come back and get ready for the Midway championships here at at Newcastle."

He also has More Sundays and Wrathful in the Midway Handicap on Saturday.

"More Sundays is on the seven-day back-up and he's undefeated doing that but he's stepping up the mile for the first time," he said.

And we've got another young horse, Wrathful, who's also accepted for Monday. But he's a really talented horse we bought from Europe.

"He broke his maiden here the other day and he's a horse who's certainly for the future."

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