Jockey Craig Newitt is upbeat about the chances of lightly-raced four-year-old Spacecraft in the Group Three Aurie's Star Handicap on the back an impressive jumpout during the week.Formerly trained by Danny O'Brien, Spacecraft will make his debut for trainer Mick Price in Saturday's Flemington feature.Newitt has watched the progression of the son of Galileo in recent weeks but with champion jockey Damien Oliver doing most of the work on him it wasn't until Tuesday that he got to partner him in a

Jockey Craig Newitt is upbeat about the chances of lightly-raced four-year-old Spacecraft in the Group Three Aurie's Star Handicap on the back an impressive jumpout during the week.

Formerly trained by Danny O'Brien, Spacecraft will make his debut for trainer Mick Price in Saturday's Flemington feature.

Newitt has watched the progression of the son of Galileo in recent weeks but with champion jockey Damien Oliver doing most of the work on him it wasn't until Tuesday that he got to partner him in a serious hitout.

He said he couldn't have asked Spacecraft to go any better in an 800-metre jumpout against Australian Horse of the Year favourite Typhoon Tracy.

"He went to the line equally as good as Typhoon Tracy which is not bad for a horse that is going to want a mile (1600m) or even further," Newitt said.

"He jumped and led her up, he jogged, and went to the line with a fair bit in hand.

"We wanted to see if he was sharp enough so he could run over the six furlongs (1200m) on Saturday and I was very happy with him.

"He impressed me very much."

Spacecraft has raced only seven times but has promised to win a good race.

A Moonee Valley and Caulfield winner, he trained on last spring to finish a long neck second to Hanks in the Group Two AAMI Vase (2040m) at Moonee Valley but trained off in the autumn after an encouraging first-up third to Denman and Carrara in the Listed Zeditave Stakes (1200m).

His only public appearance for Price was last month when he ran on strongly to finish second in a 1000-metre Geelong barrier trial.

Trial winner Bay Of Poets ran the fastest time of the day and on Thursday won his maiden at Sale by four lengths.

"I don't know why his (Spacecraft's) form tapered off last autumn," Newitt said.

"There might have been issues there but he has shown no signs of any problems.

"He is going super."

Price has nominated Spacecraft for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups as well as the Cox Plate but shorter-term has the Group One Toorak Handicap (1600m) at Caulfield as a goal.

He said a win on Saturday would make it easier to place Spacecraft in the spring as his rating was still relatively low at 85.

"If he does happen to win his rating will go whoosh which would be beautiful," Price said.

Spacecraft's weight of 53kg led to Oliver searching for a runner in his weight range in the Aurie's Star.

He has landed on the back of the Peter Moody-trained Group One winner Headway (55.5kg) but Moody said she would not run if the track was heavy.

Flemington was rated a heavy (8) on Thursday.