Veteran galloper Centennial Park is chasing a milestone when he races on Doncaster Day for the fifth year in a row.

Only this year there's a difference.

He'll be racing in Melbourne.

"We want him to break the million-dollar mark," trainer David Payne said.

"He's less than fifty thousand dollars short."

Victory in the Listed Pink Ribbon Cup (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday would realise that objective, a significant achievement for a horse Payne said had been "injury prone all his life".

With the Doncaster Mile to be run at Randwick on Saturday, you could be excused for thinking Centennial Park might have been there after contesting the race in the past three years.

A year earlier he raced in a Group race for three-year-olds on the undercard to the Doncaster.

"He's a resilient old bugger," Payne said.

"He just keeps going."

But the 1600m, especially at Randwick, just sees him out and he's been unplaced in his attempts to win the feature mile.

Payne hasn't given up hope that he can still compete at the top level and will nominate him for the Stradbroke Handicap in Brisbane this winter.

The Rosehill trainer was originally keen for Centennial Park to miss Saturday's Caulfield event as he has topweight of 60kg.

Centennial Park's owner, however, wanted to race and Payne believes the proven performer in the field will take some beating.

Four of Centennial Park's 47 starts have been in Melbourne and two of them have ended in wins at Flemington, most recently two starts ago over 1400m in Listed company.

"He's very well and he'll be competitive tomorrow," Payne said.

"He's in a nice race and I suppose the horse to beat is the one of (Peter) Moody's."

The consistent Moody-trained Club Command is favourite on the back of a luckless last start defeat at Moonee Valley, while Centennial Park is on the third line of betting.

Payne, who'll stay in Sydney on Saturday, has called on jockey Noel Callow to ride Centennial Park.

His two rides on the seven-year-old have netted a Flemington win last month and a close second in the 2011 Group One Chipping Norton Stakes.