KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Cups are not for the faint-hearted, but tank-sized Everswindell can prove she's on the right side of that line at Riccarton today.
Only two mares have taken the big race since Melbourne Cup winner Empire Rose was successful 20 years ago.
The first was the Garth
Jackson-trained Sounderation in 1990 followed by Smiling Like in 2000.
Everswindell has a tough reputation to live up to because Smiling Like was good enough to go on and win the Wellington Cup.
But Everswindell has looked up to that class, even if judging her by Empire Rose is a stretch.
And she was completely luckless when only fifth in the lead-up Metropolitan on the first day of the meeting. She has been set specifically for this race.
Noel Harris is as good as we've got as a rider of stayers and Everswindell won't lack for horsemanship.
Similarly Tedriffic didn't get the breaks in the Metropolitan, had he done so he may well have tested dashing winner Capecover.
He has emerged very quickly but that should not be seen as a negative because John Wheeler knows how to time a horse's preparation.
Capecover looks the obvious danger to the above pair.
The Pooka (No7, R9) is the best horse Rios (No6) has met and the headlining pair make a dominant, but not exclusive, mark on the $320,000 2000 Guineas. The fascination befitting this race is that most are arriving into the group one classic from different directions.
The Pooka came out of the Hastings weight-for-age treble and displayed remarkable durability to race away from the minor 3-year-old race on the first day at Riccarton despite the 58kg topweight.
Add Alamosa (No1) and Pierre Joseph (No5) into the mix and we have a cracker of a race. Very difficult to separate The Pooka and Rios, but you get the impression they haven't got to the bottom of Rios yet. This race will tell us exactly how good he is. Make sure you take the quinella result.
It was remarkable how, with so many jockeys looking to get to the outside rail on Wednesday's wet track, there were unlucky horses disappointed for a run. It jammed the body of most fields up tight and one of the worst to suffer was Squire Grey (No18, R8). He has to back up in three days but Noel Harris never really let his head go in the closing stages so he didn't have a hard physical race. He might be once again at reasonable odds today.
What a race Riccarton has to open the day - three really smart types in Prized Touch (No1), O'Reilly Rose (No3) and Coup Callum (No6). If you boxed them up in quinellas and trifectas you wouldn't be far away.
Sir Slick (No1, R6) at Tauranga is going to carry a lot of public money as usual, but he might have a job on his hands this time to hold out the improving Fiscal Madness (No2). Fiscal Madness never gets a star rating, but he's smart - check out his record for the last 18 months. He'll be greatly improved for his recent first-up effort. If High Octane (No6) gets the good track surface he's been looking for he can push his way into the trifecta even though not ideally suited to the weight-for-age scale. He is entitled to some weight relief from some of these.
Birthday Hill (No2, R4) is close to a win. She just missed at Ellerslie two starts back and the field in which she finished fifth last start was a bit better than this. The 2kg claim is important and she has strong each-way claims.
It might pay to entirely disregard Chase The Sun's (No9, R5) beaten performance last start when little went right. We all know he is one of the most promising horses around as he showed when winning when fresh at Ellerslie despite being short on fitness. Give him this one additional chance.
El Cuento (No1, R7) surprisingly showed little fight after leading in the Guineas at Wellington. He had displayed any amount of heart in all his previous racing and it might pay to put it down to a bad day. He has clear topweight today, but he's earned it and is a strong colt, up to carrying 58kg. Charliehorse (No6, R9) has rarely been trouble-free, otherwise he would be one of our stars. He has had a hiccup this preparation, but if he is even close to his best he will give them a shake today. Alonzo (No8) is another who has had his share of setbacks, but won well at the recent Te Aroha trials.