Adam Campton will be cheering for Nick Ryan to win The Meteorite with his horse Deepour

Deepour will be trained by Nick Ryan in Victoria over the summer, but he is still flying the flag for Gold Coast trainer Adam Campton in The Meteorite.

Deepour lines up in The Meteorite for new trainer Nick Ryan. Picture: Grant Peters/Trackside Photography

It’s unnatural for a trainer to cheer on a rival with their horse, but there will be no one cheering louder than Adam Campton if Nick Ryan can get explosive sprinter Deepour back in the winner’s circle on Saturday.

The Gold Coast trainer made the call to send his pin-up horse to Victoria, with his last win coming more than a year ago at Ipswich.

• PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet’s team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Campton said Deepour doesn’t cope with the Queensland humidity and wanted to do the right thing by his owners to give him every opportunity.

With $1m on the line in the new slot race at Cranbourne on Saturday, Campton said it isn’t a case of having the horse taken off him.

“He’s always going to be my horse in a way, he means a lot to us,” Campton said.

• Mare with Bella Nipotina form begins summer campaign

“I wouldn’t have sent him down there if I didn’t want him to do well, I want to do the best by the horse.

“I’d rather see the horse do well for these good owners who have supported me instead of just sitting up here not being happy.

“I have lost a pretty good horse (Antino) early in my career, so this one is water off a duck's back now.

“I haven’t lost him at all, if he was taken off me I would have been shattered, but this is genuinely what’s best for the horse.”

Adam Campton will be cheering on Deepour at Cranbourne on Saturday. Picture: Trackside Photography

The premiership-winning Gold Coast trainer said Deepour comes with his quirks and was going to struggle to take on some of Queensland’s best over the summer carnival without a change in environment.

“He is a cunning old horse, he was a bit set in his ways,” he said.

“It was very hard to get grass gallops into him here with the way the track was going and I got a bit frustrated at times with trials and jump outs that were planned and never came through.

“Horses like that, you want them to have every opportunity.

“To take on (Tony) Gollan and those big guys in town, you really need everything to go right and I just didn’t feel like it was going right for this horse.

“The weather up here, he just can’t stand the humidity, he just sooks in his box.

“Since he has been down there, he loves it.

“The main thing is about keeping him happy, when he was up here and winning, he was a happy horse who was in the zone, when he’s not in the zone, he is hard to deal with.”

Campton says he is keen to get Deepour back to Queensland during the winter if he is able to find his form in Victoria again.

Deepour is rated a $34 chance on Saturday.

Originally published as Adam Campton will be cheering for Nick Ryan to win The Meteorite with his horse Deepour