KEY POINTS:
After Seachange treated 58.5kg with disrespect last week many will be expecting Sir Slick to do the same to 60.5kg in tomorrow's $250,000 The Trusts Charitable Thorndon Mile.
It won't be anywhere near as easy, but it can be done.
One of the keys will be that the
race is at Trentham.
Sir Slick was beaten a short neck by Fiscal Madness in the Rich Hill Mile at Ellerslie two starts back when carrying the same 60.5kg.
The million-dollar earner has made a great job of breaking his Ellerslie duck in the last two months with two wins and the Rich Hill Mile second, but the track still doesn't ideally suit his racing style
He comes away from the running rail on the home bend at Ellerslie, a trait which rider Bruce Herd says you cannot correct without bleeding Sir Slick's all-important momentum.
That trait greatly assisted Fiscal Madness, who had shadowed him, to sneak through on the inner and narrowly beat him.
It would have been interesting had Fiscal Madness had to push out and go around Sir Slick.
Going the reverse way round, the grand campaigner hugs the Trentham running rail around the corner and the way Trentham races it allows bold front runners the opportunity to sneak an extra length or two on the opposition at around the 350m.
Sir Slick used it brilliantly last year and he and Opie Bosson got away to win by 1.25 lengths after losing a bit of momentum jumping the strip of bare grass where the public had walked through to the centre of the course.
That was under 57kg, which is tough - but an awful lot easier than 60.5kg.
But the thing about Sir Slick is that he fights so hard big weights are very much a secondary issue to him.
He fought back against Fiscal Madness to the point that late in the home straight you weren't sure he wasn't going to come back and take it off the winner - it certainly ran through the mind of Fiscal Madness's rider Jason Waddell.
A short neck is a very small margin when you have to fight off horses either side in a home straight like Ellerslie's.
Put that race on at Trentham and you might have got a different result.
Sir Slick is going to give this a real shake and his effort will be the highlight of the day.
The horse that came up on Sir Slick's outside as he was fighting off Fiscal Madness at Ellerslie was Sterling Prince, one of his real dangers again.
The weight relativity is practically the same and you could almost make the case that had Sterling Prince not had to change ground slightly in the home straight he might have been closer to Sir Slick than the long neck margin that separated the pair at the finish. But then getting to Sir Slick and getting past him are two different things.
Then you have to take into account had the race been run at Trentham and Sir Slick had the advantage of sprinting off the corner rail, would Sterling Prince have been any closer?
Sterling Prince is not only one of the country's big improvers, he showed in last week's Anniversary Handicap he is one of the bravest in a close finish.
He nearly came back to take it off Fiscal Madness.
One of the best ways to beat Sir Slick is to bomb him quickly, giving him little chance to fight back.
One who could do that is Shariat's On Fire.
Admittedly he is a stayer, better suited to distances longer than this 1600m, but in the reasonably fresh state he finds himself in, he could end up being a big threat.
If he can produce the final 300m sprint he displayed when running Star Of Rio to a head over 1400m at Tauranga last start, then he is right in this race.
The race pans out like there are a dozen all trying to be the king.
You've got top performers like Cog Hill and Dezigna, backed up by outstanding 3-year-old Alamosa, the underrated southerner Tiplulater, Final Reality and The Silence Sir. And that's not mentioning some very smart types.
If there was to be any easing of the ground at all, Final Reality would be the one to beat. An "off"' track would hamper most runners and put two lengths on Final Reality, who made up a remarkable amount of ground to be beaten only half a length in Fiscal Madness' Anniversary win last week.
A bruised foot has ruled top mare Dorabella out of the race.
Otaki trainer Howie Mathews said the injury was minor but he was not prepared to risk her.