KEY POINTS:
It's appropriate David Walsh and Noel Harris come out of adjacent gates in today's group one $200,000 First Sovereign Trust Avondale Cup.
The pair are similarly placed alongside each other in their quest to become the fourth and fifth jockeys to ride 2000 winners in New Zealand.
It's
only a few weeks ago that Walsh and Harris dead-heated in the Stewards at Riccarton - a similar result today would be magical.
There are a couple of variances in official records of how many winners Harris and Walsh have actually achieved, most of them a couple of additional winners ahead of the records New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing is running with.
That schedule has Harris on 1973 after two wins at Wanganui on Saturday and Walsh on 1970.
The shame is today they have drawn the two widest gates: Gaze (Walsh, 17) and The Veep (18).
It takes a special effort to win Avondale Cups from out there, but they at least have the length of the home straight to find a position to prevent covering too much extra ground.
Gaze has a lot of tactical speed and Walsh will probably push forward looking to get across most of the field.
Even with a good barrier it was not going to be easy for Gaze who, with 56.5kg, has to give 2.5 kg to Kingsinga and Ombre Rose, and even more to Stand Tall, who has 53kg.
There is not a lot to pick between Stand Tall, Kingsinga and Ombre Rose, except the slightly better No8 barrier draw for Ombre Rose.
She came in much better at the weights in the Counties Cup on 54.5kg and showed her appreciation by finishing off strongly for an admirable close third to Spin Around.
The southern mare is going to be right in this race for most of the home straight and it will almost certainly come down to whether she has the strength to hold out Kingsinga and Stand Tall.
Kingsinga looked magnificent winning the $70,000 Marton Cup at Awapuni in January. He carried 56kg that day and beat Luckshan, who was weeks away from placing in the Auckland Cup. He has clearly been set for this race.
Stand Tall is far too good to be dropped for his sixth in the Counties Cup when favourite. It is not difficult to accept that the rain-affected track that day upset his long stride and he should be seen as a real danger.
Resolution is a horse that continually gets under the radar, but it might not pay to forget he finished only three-quarters of a length behind winner Empires Choice in the Queensland Derby in June and only 1.6 lengths off Redoute's Dancer in the Mercedes Derby at Ellerslie in March.
$200,000 Cup
* David Walsh and Noel Harris, neck and neck heading to 2000 wins, come out of adjacent gates in today's big race.
* Unfortunately they are outside gates, although Walsh still has a chance with classy mare Gaze.
* Marton Cup winner Kingsinga has been progressing nicely in preparation for this and rates highly.
