Richard Collett was pleasantly surprised when he worked Cog Hill at Pukekohe yesterday morning.
Collett thought that without a race for a month, his Coupland Bakeries Mile winner Cog Hill may have been a shade too burly to be truly competitive against the likes of Kristov in tomorrow's $60,000 HigginsChallenge Stakes at Awapuni.
He changed his mind after yesterday's work.
"He's really sharp, I'm surprised. I thought he'd be too gross to try and get the last run at Kristov, but his work was excellent.
"That gallop he had between races at Ellerslie last Wednesday had tightened him up beautifully."
With the possible exception of Figurinit, the group-three, 1400m, weight-for-age race looks like a contest between Kristov and Cog Hill.
The remarkably consistent Kristov is coming back to his pet 1400m distance after being run down late by Sedecrem over 1600m at Ellerslie three weeks ago.
Trainer Phillip Stevens believes that, with the benefit of hindsight, his team made a slight tactical error in the Ellerslie race.
"He raced a bit keenly in the trail and I reckon now we'd have been better to let him bowl long in front because he has such a high cruising speed. In the closing stages he had two horses outside him and Sedecrem grabbed all of us late with his dashing finish."
As he has done many times, Sedecrem flashes home so quickly he denies the opposition the chance to fight back at him.
Tomorrow's 1400m will provide a much different scenario.
Kristov will be right on the speed, either in front or outside the leader, and Cog Hill will attempt run him down in the final 150m.
Track conditions will play a part. Three days of predicted rain had not eventuated by yesterday afternoon. Track management made the decision not to water the track because of the forecast and unless some rain develops, the footing is likely to be very firm.
