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After a lean 2021-22 campaign, premier FNQ trainer Stephen Massingham has set his sights on achieving a career best season.

And, he is well on the way to reaching the lofty goal of recording 50 winners in 2022-23 for the first time in his tenure as a trainer.

The 2021-22 season was the least prolific of the last four for Stephen Massingham.

He started 167 horses – the most of the last four campaigns – and collected 24 winners – the least of those four recent seasons.

The 2021-22 campaign saw Massingham's strike-rate slip below 20 per cent for the first time since 2016-17, as well.

It was highlighted by a four month period during over the back end of 2021 and into the start of 2022 where the Massingham yard did not prepare a winner.

The Cannon Park-based Massingham has commenced the new season with a bang in 2022-23.

He is likely to surpass his winners tally from last season this week with a massive team of nine runners accepted to face the starter on Thursday at Cairns Jockey Club.

The 50-year-old says he has learnt from his slender run and adapted with the way he has managed his stable going forward, focusing in on when horses come back from a spell so he can have a team full of horses ready to race as often as possible.

"Last year I had a lean trot and most probably went about things the wrong way," Massingham said.

"I was out of action for a little bit with my health so I put 10 horses in the paddock as I did not want to burden my staff, as we can only have 15 in the barn at a time.

"And, then all of a sudden bringing 10 horses back into work, that is 10 weeks or so without a runner.

"We just went about it the wrong way and this year we kept running a few horses after our northern carnival that previously we may have put in the paddock in previous years. 

"We kept them running for another month to six weeks so the five we brought in were ready to go.

"We have just gone about it differently this year, which has helped."

The Cairns-based trainer is in the top six for winners across the Sunshine State this season so far and could move closer to the leading trio with a big day on Thursday.

Of the leading half a dozen trainers in Queensland this campaign, Massingham boasts the strongest strike-rate at 29.90 per cent.

Massingham's bounce back season has been underlined by the stables form on their home track.

The team have 11 winners since the new season ticked over on August 1.

They trained just 11 winners at Cannon Park in the entire 12 months last time.

"It is just something I have learnt, we need to have consistent runners," Massingham – who is backed by leading owner Tom Hedley - said.

"I thought the world had crashed when I did not train a winner for that long, when it was four or five months (laughs).

"You just need to keep chipping away at it."

With a half century of victories in mind for this season and nearly four months already surpassed, he is well on the way to achieving the goal with 22.5 triumphs already in the record books.

With a big team of nine to go around on Thursday, the orange colours of the Massingham stable can push that win tally further forward across the eight-event provincial program.

The leading North Queensland trainer believes his best winning chance of the card comes in the last event of the day, a Class 1 Handicap over 1250 metres with last-start winner Whey Mischief.

The former Victorian-based grey gelding took care of his maiden level victory at Townsville's Cluden Park last month before being scratched at the barriers at Cairns almost a fortnight ago.

Whey Mischief was kicked by another horse behind the barriers.

Previously prepared by Joseph Waldron in Victoria, the four-year-old gelding was the subject of a large plunge when he claimed his maiden at Townsville.

As much as $10 was on offer at one stage before he won as a $3.10 shot.

"He had not raced for ages before he had his first start for me and I thought he would need a run," Massingham said of his last race start.

"I thought he would run well but thought he would just knock up.

"He won on that occasion and I thought he would go well again at Cairns in his second start before he was scratched at the barriers when he was kicked.

"He is a nice horse and I am looking forward to seeing what he can do going forward."

Stable mate Fodor – who will contest the QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap - is also another strong winner chance, Massingham thinks.