Things haven’t gone perfectly for popular Wairarapa trainer Alby MacGregor this year with Times Ticking (NZ) (Tavistock), but he’s hopeful of a strong performance at Hastings on Saturday.

Times Ticking is set to contest the Gr.3 Red Badge Spring Sprint (1400m) – a race in which he finished second last year to subsequent Group One winner Two Illicit (NZ) (Jimmy Choux) despite being three wide much of the trip.

Unlike last year, Times Ticking comes into the event without a race this season, though that’s more bad luck than design.

“I took him to Taranaki for the Opunake Cup (Listed, 1400m) in July, and he got a bloody stone bruise and it burst out the next day. I had to scratch him there on the day, and that set us back,” MacGregor said.

“Then we had him ready to run in the 1200m race at Hastings two weeks ago, like he did last year, but that got called off.

“So everything hasn’t really gone 100 percent. We’ve had our hitches along the way.”

With the October 15 cancellation, MacGregor took Times Ticking to Foxton for a 1000m trial, which he won by four lengths.

However, he developed a bruised heel on Monday, which hasn’t helped the preparation.

“I haven’t been able to gallop him, but he’s still been working at the track. I just haven’t put too much pressure on it as far as galloping on it, just pacework,” MacGregor said.

“But he’s a pretty lightly-framed horse and I don’t gallop him a lot anyway.

“If he’s not 100 percent I won’t be starting him, but I’d say at the moment he’s a 95 percent chance of starting. He’s still got two or three days.”

Times Ticking has proved to have a strong affinity for the Hawke’s Bay track. In addition to his Group Three placing last year, he was third in his lead-up, and the previous season he won twice at the Hastings spring carnival.

“He really likes Hastings. Most times he’s been in the money, so we’re hopeful he’ll go well again.”

All going well, MacGregor hopes to take Times Ticking to Riccarton for the Gr.3 Couplands Bakeries Mile (1600m) in November, possibly without a run in the interim.

MacGregor knows a thing or two about success at the Hastings spring carnival, having won this race in 2012 and the Gr.1 Hawke’s Bay Challenge Stakes (1400m, now known as the Tarzino Trophy) with his outstanding gelding Fritzy Boy.

He started an astonishing 22 times at the carnival, also recording another placing in the Challenge Stakes, two placings in the Horlicks Plate (1600m, currently known as the Arrowfield Plate), and one in the Gr.2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m).

The $843,000 earner is now 18 and still with MacGregor on his farm.

“I still look after the old fella. He’s doing marvellous – when he sees me coming with the hay, he’ll sprint across the paddock like he’s a two-year-old,” he said.

Times Ticking is now MacGregor’s sole horse. The 75-year-old is now in semi-retirement, though he has kept a horse and also runs some cattle and sheep on his farm.

“I’ve said at times that Times Ticking would be my last horse, but I don’t really know about that. While you’re healthy, it keeps you going.”