The three-year-old gelding, winner of three of his four starts, jumps from barrier eight with Robert Thompson aboard and in a race that also contains fellow Scone galloper, seven-year-old mare In Top Gear.

She is prepared by Luke Griffith and goes from barrier five with three kilo-claiming apprentice Adam Sewell aboard.

Voodoo Lad is on a Country Championships campaign for Northam who also welcomed back Ramornie-Healy Stakes star Big Money to training this week as well as preparing Wisen Up for tomorrow’s $30,000 Walcha Cup (1440m) and Odyssey Moon for Saturday’s $250,000 Inglis Classic at Rosehill.

“It’s a big week,” Northam agreed.

All starting with Voodoo Lad at Wyong today at around 4.45pm.

“He’s super,” Northam said. 

“He missed a trial last week but had a nice jump out (with Odyssey Moon) Friday.

“I’m confident he’ll run well.”

He is on a Country Championship campaign, with the $100,000 Country Championship heat at Tamworth on March 12 his first priority followed by, hopefully, the April 5 $300,000 final at Randwick.

Wisen Up runs in tomorrow’s $30,000 Elders 130th Walcha Cup (1440m), a race  Northam  has won once before with grand old warrior Prior Baron.

The gelding pulled up well after his Tamworth win in mid-January and has done well, Northam  said.

“He’ll have to carry his owners across the line though,”  Northam said of his syndicate of Walcha owners, led by Walcha  president Jim Nivison.

Nivison is determined to win his hometown Cup.

He also admits he has a lot of “work to do” to catch his mother, Jill Nivison, who has won two Walcha Cups (Mt Rainier and Jefferson Park) and his sister Kate, who has also won the Walcha Cup with Sirenese.

 Northam hopes he can win with Wisen Up although he said he has a big task in front of him from barrier 11.

“He pulled up well after his Tamworth win and has done well,” he said.

“He’s worked well and drops in weight too. I think he’s going to be a real good each way chance.”

While he wasn’t thrilled with the barrier, he has a trump card.

“I’ll leave it to the master,” he said of jockey Robert Thompson, who also rides Voodoo Lad today.

Winning another Walcha Cup would be another tremendous result, he said.

Prior Baron won the 2011 edition of the Walcha Cup for Northam, one of the gelding’s 11 race victories.

“He was a great old horse for me,” he said.

“He won at Canterbury one day, got beaten a couple of lengths by Triple Elegance one day at Rosehill and won a Gunnedah Cup and should have won a Scone Cup.

Wisen Up still has a way to go to match that, he said.

“He has a way to go yet,” he said.

Winning a Walcha Cup would be a good start although Northam might find the post-Cup celebrations the hardest part of the day in a week where he is also at the Inglis Yearling Sales in Sydney and then at Rosehill with Odyssey Moon on Saturday.

“Odyssey Moon did miss that trial but I’m confident he’s fit enough,” he said of a gelding who runs in the $250,000 Inglis Classic (1200m).

“He’s drawn well (6). He’s got a bit of gate speed so he should sit just off the pace somewhere, be nice and handy and have the last crack at them.”

Odyssey Moon has had just the one start for a win in the Inglis Nursery at Randwick back in December.

Meanwhile, Big Money has also returned to Northam’s stable in good style.

“He looks great,” he said of a gelding who won Group 3 and Listed races in Brisbane last campaign but has a trio of Group 1’s to chase in Brisbane later this year.

“I might be throwing him at the deep end a bit,” Northam said.

“But I’ll aim him at the BTC Cup, the Doomben 10,000 and the Stradbroke.

“He’ll have a lead-up run somewhere but the three Group 1’s are his aim.

“He deserves a shot.”