East Maitland owner Kel Lean will head to Cannington on Saturday with his wife Michelle and mum Jill to cheer on Keybow in the 2014 Group 1 Sky Racing Perth Cup (530m).
Keybow (pictured) - trained in Victoria by Darren McDonald - qualified for Saturday night's feature with an impressive heat win in 30.50 beating General Destini and Dannie Bale.
"It was very tight into the first turn and I was hoping he could push through and not get spat out the back," Lean said.
"There was a lot of pressure on him but he held his own and when he pushed through he put three lengths on General Destini which is not a bad effort."
Prior to heading to Perth Keybow showed he was up to Group racing with a second to Banjo Boy in the Group 2 Cranbourne Cup. He was also second reserve for the Group 1 Silver Chief.
"He showed ability right from the start and after starting his career in NSW I decided to send him to Darren McDonald because I thought he would give him every chance to reach his full potential," Lean said.
There will be a big contingent of supporters cheering on Keybow on Saturday night.
"I have a few relatives that live in WA as well so there will be a tribe of about 15 of us there. It will be a big cheer squad," Lean said.
"I'm really looking forward to it."
Keybow will start from box three in Saturday night's feature event after winning his heat from box two.
"He's won five from five from box two but I'm happy with box three," Lean said.
"He does seem to prefer to be drawn near the inside.
"And racing first-up at a new track doesn’t seem to worry him either.
"Hopefully he will be improved even further on last week now he has had a look at the track. He's a dog on the way up and is still only young.
"If he can jump on Saturday night and hold the rails I think he's in with a big chance."
Keybow is on the third line of betting at $4.40 in TAB fixed odds markets behind the locally-trained pair of Star Recall for Linda Britton ($3.70) and Paul Stuart's Hillbilly Flash ($4.40).
Both trainers will be looking to complete the Group 1 double on Saturday night.
Britton - who has four finalists in the Perth Cup - also has Reverberate (box four) in the Group 1 Sky Racing Galaxy final (715m) while Stuart will be represented by heat impressive winner Ash Flash (box eight).
TAB fixed odds has the Rob Britton-trained Born Ali (box one) favourite for the Galaxy at $2.20 with Ash Flash second pick at $4.40.
Rob Britton has two finalists after also qualifying Gold Affair Two (box seven), who is solid in the market at $7.50.
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