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Trainer Joe Pride will leave budding Group winner Craftiness at home when he sends a three-horse team to Brisbane this week.

Pride intends to start Kuro, Rock Sturdy and Laser Hawk at Doomben on Saturday but has other plans for Craftiness.

Pride has drawn up a new program for Craftiness after the talented four-year-old was scratched from the feature sprint at Hawkesbury last Saturday prior to the meeting being abandoned.

Craftiness, the winner of six of his eight starts, is entered for a BM 95 event over 1350m at Rosehill on Saturday, a race Pride will use to get a better guide to the gelding’s prospects at the Brisbane carnival.

Craftiness is yet to be tested beyond 1200m and Pride is anxious to gauge his distance capabilities before finalising his Brisbane program.

He is nominated for the G1 BTC Cup (1200m) at Doomben on Saturday but is last on the order of entry among the 22 nominations and Pride is not ready to step him up to that level at this stage.

Craftiness has already been to Brisbane this preparation where he won over 1050m at Doomben in March before returning to Sydney to finish a gallant second to boom sprinter Our Boy Malachi in the G3 Hall Mark Stakes at Randwick on April 18 when having his first start over 1200m.

Pride’s classy 3YO Kuro will be looking to get back to winning form in the $100,000 Mick Dittman Plate (1200m) at Doomben on Saturday after three defeats over the Sydney autumn carnival since resuming in March.

He was a first-up third in the Fireball Stakes then recorded the second G1 placing of his career when second to Sweet Idea in the ATC Galaxy (1100m) at Rosehill where the subsequent Adelaide G1 winner Miracles Of Life finished third.

Kuro then let the stable down with a struggling eighth as favourite in the G2 Arrowfield Sprint at Randwick on April 11 when he failed to cope with the heavy ground.

He has since gone to Gosford for a barrier trial second on April 29 and Pride is counting on better track conditions at Doomben to help the stylish Dernman colt get back to the form that has seen him win five of his 11 starts.

Pride has high hopes for Rock Sturdy at the Brisbane carnival, starting on Saturday where he has the choice of running the 4YO in the $500,000 BTC Cup (1200m) or the easier $125,000 BRC Sprint, a G3 event over 1350m.

Rock Sturdy, a robust gelding who has won four of his 12 starts including the G2 Shannon Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill last spring, was in need of the race when he resumed off a five months spell with an eighth in the Hall Mark Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on April 1.

Laser Hawk, winner of the G1 Rosehill Guineas in 2012 when trained by Gai Waterhouse, recorded his first win for Pride when he resumed in the G3 Newcastle Newmarket (1400m) at Broadmeadow in March.

He has had only one subsequent start, finishing last of 13 at weight-for-age in the G1 All-Aged Stakes (1400m) in the unsuitable heavy going at Randwick on April 18.