Pakenham trainer Rick Harrison is painting a promising future for discarded galloper Van Gogh who he bought for $2,000 in the hope that he could give him a home town Cup win next February.The five-time winner will make his debut for Harrison in Wednesday's Trevaskis Handicap (1300m) which will be his 18th race start after myriad problems.His cantankerous ways and joint issues were the main concerns but Harrison said that a change in routine appears to have turned around the horse's attitude and

Pakenham trainer Rick Harrison is painting a promising future for discarded galloper Van Gogh who he bought for $2,000 in the hope that he could give him a home town Cup win next February.

The five-time winner will make his debut for Harrison in Wednesday's Trevaskis Handicap (1300m) which will be his 18th race start after myriad problems.

His cantankerous ways and joint issues were the main concerns but Harrison said that a change in routine appears to have turned around the horse's attitude and that he was free in his action and ready to go.

"I am quite pleased with his progress," Harrison said.

He said the odds were against a first-up win for Van Gogh but he was not completely ruling out the possibility.

"He hasn't raced for 13 months, has 59kg and has drawn the outside of the 12 runners so he is probably going to need the run, but he has certainly shown he can gallop," he said.

"He could go there and do anything because he has shown in the past that he is a real race day horse."

Harrison has made a habit of resurrecting the racing careers of tried horses, most notably Bond Street who cost him $6,000 as a tried horse and went on to win the Listed Hareeba Stakes at Mornington in February.

Only days later Van Gogh made an immediate impression on Harrison when he walked into the William Inglis sale ring.

"I thought `What a lovely looking horse' and looked down at the catalogue and he'd had five wins from 17 starts so hadn't been overtaxed," Harrison said.

Van Gogh's previous trainer Peter Morgan said the eight-year-old had "wear and tear" issues and as he was regularly carrying big weights it was felt it was time to move him on after his only run last year when seventh at Sandown.

Harrison said Van Gogh, who is a dual winner at Sandown, could make an ideal Pakenham Cup horse should he train on given that a number of jumpers helped make up the field this year.

"He is a horse we could have a lot of fun with," Harrison said.

"He's been tried over 1500 metres and hasn't done much but if we can get him to settle a bit and if mentally he still wants to do it we will have a crack at it (Pakenham Cup)," Harrison said.