He has been a regular big race contestant during 2022 and now Hold Me Up is set to tackle the Melbourne Cup series following his great first-up third to Zippy Tesla at Sandown last Thursday night.
Hold Me Up, a TAB Million Dollar Chase finalist, was beaten just under five lengths after exiting box three.
Trainer Joe Comito will return to Sandown with Hold Me Up to contest a Prelude of the Melbourne Cup there on November 12.
"I did not trial Hold Me Up at Sandown but used last Thursday's race to give him experience on the track and to gauge whether it was worth making the nine hours drive again for the Cup Preludes,'' Comito said.
"His run was good because due to the different starting run-up he banged his head on the boxes and missed the kick.
"But he showed good speed to work his way to the front before the early effort told and he ran out of gas in the straight.''
Hold Me Up, a June, 2019 son of Fernando Bale and Funky Punk, has won 14 races and $75,000 and is a litter brother to Funky Girl, who has won two from four Wentworth Park races for Comito.
But Funky Girl is unlikely to have a long career on the track as Comito said: "She is going to be my next brood bitch so I won't be over-racing her.''
Precious Sal, who set the still unbroken Maitland 400m record of 21.87 in January, 2018, continued her remarkable success as a brood bitch with Sal's Blue Boy, her son sired by Barcia Bale, winning Friday's time honoured Pop Northfield Maiden Classic at Casino.
Trained by Stephen Keep, Sal's Boy clocked 23.47 in his heat before trimming those figures to 23.14 in the final, with his kennelmate and litter brother All Lies Ahead finishing fifth.
"There is nothing between them although I believe that later on All Lies Ahead could be a bit stronger at the finish of his races than Sal's Blue Boy,'' Keep said.
"I plan to take them to Grafton for a race and then give them a brief campaign in Brisbane before heading to Wentworth Park with them.''
Keep's pair are owned by Margaret Dwyer and her son Geoff, who raced the Darren Russell-trained Precious Sal.
Precious Sal's part-owner Geoff Dwyer said: "Trapped has had a few problems but he was the subject of a $100,000 offer before he even raced so he is a fast dog.
"He has just been sent to trainer Anthony Azzopardi in Victoria so it will be interesting to see how he goes.
"Precious Sal's final litter whelped in May were sired by Superior Panama and after the Pop Northfield final I tried unsuccessfully to buy back four youngsters I had sold.
"Unfortunately Precious Sal will have no more pups because she had three caesareans so has been retired, de-sexed, and re-homed.''
