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February 18. Dubbo. That was the time and place trainer Clint Lundholm thought the comeback dream was over for Listen To The Band.

Injury had prevented the 2023 Newhaven Park WRA Country Championships winner from taking his place at Randwick in the Final and when the gelding went down on his knees in a barrier trial, that was intended to have him ready to race in Sydney, Clint Lundholm held his breath.

The nine-year-old's career has been restricted to just nine starts so that tells you, without needing to go into the detail, he's had his share of problems.

"I thought it was over. I honestly thought he was done,'' Lundholm said.

"He knuckled over and I thought we were done, but we did the x-rays and scans and found nothing but a bit of bruising.

"It still knocked the wind out of our sails because we wanted to go to Sydney for a start to have him wound up for his second-up run. That put a spanner in the works so we had to go to Plan B."

The Group 3 Liverpool City Cup at Randwick was meant to be Listen To The Band's warm up for Sunday's $150,000 Newhaven Park WRA Country Championships (1400m) at Coonamble.

Instead Lundholm had to go back to a third barrier trial to have him as ready as he can to defend his title first-up since winning the race last year and earn the chance to take his patient connections to Randwick.

He was $3.60 second favourite with TAB on Friday with the first two home earning the right to contest the $1 million Final.

"They've put a whole lot of time into him. It's not just the 12 months since he raced last time. They put 12 months into him before then and backed me,'' he said.

"He hasn't had the ideal preparation leading into this but that's the cards we've been dealt.

"He's as good as I can have him, he's a good horse and good horses can overcome bad luck sometimes. It's just unfortunate he's a nine-year-old with a lot of problems. I love him and he'll try his guts out on Sunday."

What's important to note about Listen To The Band's unorthodox preparation for such an important race is that he hasn't been off the scene for as long as it appears.

Lundholm gave him a preparation of about 10 weeks that included a jump out late last year to bring him to a reasonable level of fitness before getting serious.

"We sent him to the paddock for two weeks after that so it's not as if he's going in on one preparation, he's had two preps into this race,'' he said.

"The other day (in his third trial) I said to Jake (Pracey Holmes) we need to test him. If he's sore after it at least we know, we don't want to be going to the big one and something goes amiss."

He passed that test with a runaway 4-1/2 length win in a 1000m trial at Dubbo on March 8.

The Coonamble bred trainer expects the Championships race to be run at a solid tempo and with that in mind he ensured the gelding was ridden with some cover in that trial win, so with an ideal draw he can track the speed.

"He's a horse that can lead but Jake was happy in his trials to try and take a sit on him,'' he said.

"We've given him the opportunity to settle in his trials and he's shown a great turn of foot of that.

"With the speed in the race you're going to see him positioned right behind the leaders and that will give him every chance."

Listen To The Band is obviously the fairytale story of the WRA Country Championships, once again, but Lundholm has three other horses trying their luck.

Clint Lundholm on Transplant: We never really thought about the Championships until the end of last preparation, she put her hand up at Orange when we took her to the 1400m. There were some nice horses behind her and she won well. She's going to hold her own and she'll be a chance."

On Hallowed Star: "I was rapt in him last preparation, I was going to put him in the Wagga Guineas until he kicked a rail and hurt himself. He's been a disappointing horse this preparation. He's had a few excuses in a few runs, he's a horse that has got ability but he disappointed me."

On Nest In The Hills: "He got crook at the end of last prep when he was in form. I thought Dubbo was his race last start, I know he had a big weight but he was disappointing."