Echuca-based husband and wife training team Gwenda and Mick Johnstone are hoping stable star Rocket Tommy can blast away from the established top-liners because he has a key weapon in his armoury.

His love of straight tracks.

It's a daunting task for a horse when it is confronted by the vast expanse of Flemington's famous 1200-metre course. There is nowhere to hide as the track unfolds, unbending and unyielding to what must seem like infinity before the stands and the landmark clock tower loom into view near the finish line.

Most horses hate it. Most like to race in a bunch - the herd instinct kicking in - and most prefer to run on the turn, where they can conserve energy, leaving something in reserve for a dash down the straight.

So when you get a horse that likes it down the course he can be a real money-spinner, capable of showing great improvement or performing much better than his rating might suggest.

Rocket Tommy is just such a horse.

And while his record so far suggests he might have to improve a fair bit to match the top-liners, his penchant for the Flemington straight means that he could show improvement when given the chance to match it even against the best.

Certainly the Echuca-based Johnstones are prepared to take the gamble with their rising six-year-old, who is now physically maturing and coming into his own.

The grey is a bit of a boom and bust proposition, having won seven of his 14 starts and never once been placed.

But significantly his two best victories have come down the Flemington straight course, over 1100 metres in late January and 1000 metres in March, and it is that course and distance form which is emboldening the Johnstones to target some of the big spring sprints with their son of Hold That Tiger.

"Rocket Tommy will go to Flemington on August 12, there's a 1000m benchmark 90 race. He will start in that and then we will work out where he goes from there," said Mick Johnstone.

"We are going to try him in some of the early group races. He is really good down the straight and he has had the two wins there. After Flemington we will probably head to Caulfield at the end of August, early September for a race, then then we will go back down the straight through the rest of the spring.

"He will go to the Bobbie Lewis (group 3 in early September) then the Gilgai (on Turnbull Stakes Day) then the group 2 on Derby Day."

It's an ambitious programme for a horse that is still eligible for restricted races, but Johnstone is optimistic he will measure up.

"We will try it and see what happens. He always showed a little bit, but he is a horse that has just got better as he has had more racing," he said.

Jockey Jarrod Fry has ridden to all seven victories and the Johnstones are happy to stick with him. Fry has ridden 72 winners so far this season but only a handful at city tracks.

"He rides him well. We will stick with him. He has won seven on him. He tries, he knows the horse well, he's gone through all the different stages. He's done a great job."

Sometimes a horse's sheer brilliance and superiority - a Black Caviar for example - makes them impervious to track conditions and configurations. They are simply better than the rest and will win anywhere.

But a handful of oddballs, often horses with quirks, different personalities or running styles that see them to better advantage when they can stretch out and gradually build up a head of steam seem to excel down the straight.

Last year's Newmarket winner The Quarterback is one: he is a much better horse down the Flemington straight than he seems to be elsewhere. That old warrior Takeover Target was another: from five starts down the Flemington straight the great sprinter won three times at group 1 level.

Jockeys sometimes find the pace more difficult to judge going down the straight, headwinds make it an even tougher prospect, and horses, if left in front too far from the line, can stargaze and lose concentration without a bend or a pack of opponents to guide them or aim at.