KEY POINTS:
What a shame it rained.
The Counties Cup is meant to be our first guide to the whole range of summer Cups, but did Saturday's rain-affected $200,000 Eagle Technology deliver at that level?
Almost certainly not.
Terrific effort by winner Spin Around and an even better performance by
trainer Steven Cooper, but run that race again on a summer track and chances are you'd get a different result.
It's way too early to be putting the pencil through Stand Tall as the emerging summer stayer.
Rider Chad Ormsby wasn't offering too many excuses for the favourite's sixth placing, saying the big bloke raced a bit dour late in the race, but he's such a massive long strider that the track was almost certainly at fault.
Stay with him.
We learned a few other things:
Ombre Rose (3rd) is suited to these handicap races from here on where she drops kilos from the weight-for-age events.
Kerry O'Reilly (2nd) might be at least as good as he's ever been because he's never really been happy in that type of ground he struck Saturday.
There is a race in Gaze (4th) this preparation.
Being unable to lead clearly, she was committed to an inside run in the home straight and that wasn't the place to be.
Race 1: Chettak, Black Panther and Mirkola Lass are warming up nicely for the middle distances races. All three outpaced over 1600m on Saturday by metric mile specialist The Cosmob.
Race 2: Don't drop Alluring for finishing fifth.
Race 5: Winner Sterling Prince has a massive future.
Taatyana (3rd) isn't far away from another win and Sir Fortriss (7th) will be much fitter for his first-up effort.
Race 6: Top runs everywhere in the Breeders Stakes. My Hangover (3rd) showed she needs only a decent firm track to win a nice race.
In-foal Sarajay showed improvement to be just one length from winner Irlanda.
Penny Florence (5th) made a sweeping run from the tail of the field to be just 1.4 lengths away. She looks close to breaking through.
Dorabella (6th) paid the price for dropping back from 1600m to 1400m, but made ground strongly, despite having to change ground.
Watch her at 1600m and 2000m.
Prize Lady (8th) did well for a staying mare fresh from a break.
Race 7: Genuine Offer got the money for the punters prepared to take the short odds, but don't back her again on rain-affected footing. She doesn't like it.
Race 8: Top efforts plus forgiving runs in the big sprint: Crossyourheart (2nd =) had a gutbuster, but showed she can come back to her best form.
As a 3-year-old with 54kg she was above weight-for-age and most of the others were below it, so she did well.
Imananabaa (2nd =) powered home from the 300 to be beaten only a neck.
She has plenty of class and can cop a decent sprint.
Pinsoir (9th), probably forget he went around.
St Verdi (10th), ditto.
Magic Tryst (11th) was one of the worst on the day affected by the pattern of racing that meant it was almost possible to lead and feature prominently.
Race 10: Stay with Needuask (3rd) and Royal Imperium (4th) on a true summer track.
* The best performance was the Counties Racing Club making the decision weeks out to transfer off its troubled facility to Ellerslie.
The way the rain arrived on Friday night we may not have raced at all if the meeting had been at Puke-kohe.