Plenty of people are excited about the resumption of night racing at Canterbury this evening but the same can’t be said for mad Rugby League fan John O’Shea.

While he has three live chances on tonight’s program he’s gutted at the fact he won’t be able to attend the Sydney Football Stadium to watch his beloved Brisbane Broncos take on the Manly Sea Eagles.

“Just what I need when the broncos are playing in Sydney,” he said.

While O’Shea may have to settle for glimpses of the on course TV’s in between runs, one thing that would cheer him up is if he could score a win or two in the process.

He’s a real chance to do so as well, potentially even with his first runner when Freyberg lines up in race three.

“He’s backing up from Saturday, being extremely difficult to get him down to his racing weight,” he said.

“We’ll back him up quickly to get him a little bit fitter.”

O’Shea is happy with how this race is shaping up though and thinks fourth run in he could be ready to fire.

“Looks to be a nice opportunity for him to go straight to the front this evening over the 1550m,” he said.

“His works been very good all along, he’s just been fat, we’ve finally got him there slowly, hopefully pays dividends tonight.”

In the very next event, race four over 1250m, O’Shea has one of his most exciting stable prospects in the form of Showpony Express.

He debuted with a solid win last start and O’Shea is confident he’ll begin to work his way through the grades.

“His work is above average and I’d be very disappointed if he didn’t figure in the finish,” he said.

“Ideally he’s probably bred to run a mile, mile and a quarter.”

Finally rounding out the program will be another unbeaten O’Shea runner Lightinthenite which won two in a row before being spelled and returns first up here.

“He’s quite a nice horse, we’ve been extremely patient on him,” he said.

“His first trial was excellent, he trialled in behind Sincero.”