Shaune Ritchie expects more of the same from Bee Tee Junior at Te Rapa.

“We’ve been trying to avoid the heavier tracks with him and he’s in the right sort of race,” the Cambridge trainer said.

“He’s doing well and I would expect him to be very competitive again.”

Bee Tee Junior has won two of his last four starts and he will go into Saturday’s Lowe Schollum & Jones 2100 off the back of a runner-up finish on the course last month.

Ritchie has been delighted with the six-year-old’s continued progress and has thoughts of a repeat trip to Riccarton with the gelding later in the year.

“He’s racing consistently and we might look at another crack at the New Zealand Cup with him,”

Ritchie said. “It was probably a year too soon for him last season, but he’s older and it’s a race well within his grasp.”

Bee Tee Junior finished eighth behind Pump Up The Volume in the 2016 edition of the Cup.

He’s not the only stayer that Ritchie could aim at the Christchurch feature either with the capable Snow Secret a possible contender.

“She’s going to Ruakaka on September 2 for her first-up run,” he said. “She finished second to Lizzie L’Amour in the Waikato Cup last season so she could be looking at races like that up here again or even the New Zealand Cup. She runs two miles.”

Snow Secret finished fourth in the Gr.3 Wellington Cup in 2016 and was an unlucky seventh in the Trentham event last year after she was denied room in the straight.