Soviet Missile will line-up in his second Group 1 final when he contests the Newcastle Herald National Derby (515m) at Unibet Gardens on Friday night.
The Toby Weekes-trained chaser qualified for the Group 1 Sportingbet Vic Peters Classic Final at Wentworth Park on November 11 last year and was far from disgraced when sixth behind Belfast Johnny.
Soviet Missile (pictured) was first reserve for last week's semi-final but made the best of a lucky break to qualify for this week's decider with a second to Evil Punk, and will start from box six on Friday night.
"We thought he'd run a whole in his semi-final and we think he'll be competitive in the final," said Gus Weekes, Toby's father who made the long trip from Molong - near ORANGE in the state's Central West - to handle Soviet Missile last Friday.
"He's shown before he's right up with these dogs. He ran a good race in Sydney in the Vic Peters.
"He's a nice dog and he'll improve more yet."
The Mark Gatt-trained Boyce Road is the solid $1.90 TAB fixed odds favourite after putting up a herculean effort to qualify for the final.
Boyce Road was severely checked on two occasions but picked himself up to finish fourth in his semi-final.
On Friday night he will start from box one and is clearly the dog to beat.
Evil Punk looks the leader from box two and has definite claims on his impressive semi win, while Zipping Brock recorded a smart 29.54 leading throughout to win last week and with luck from box eight has claims.
For Friday's National Derby and National Futurity fields click here
