KEY POINTS:
Grand Archway was a wonderful staying mare at the absolute top level.
It will be no surprise then if her Zabeel son Stand Tall makes a real name for himself in top class stayers' races.
He's going to get the perfect opportunity to prove he can in tomorrow's
$200,000 Eagle Technology Counties Cup, run at Ellerslie.
Stand Tall is a 6-year-old, but has had only 13 race starts, his career having been badly derailed at times with bone chip and joint problems.
Russell Cameron and Gareth McCrae have the beautifully bred emerging star in the right shape now, though, and he looms as a big threat to the already established horses at this level like Gaze and Ombre Rose.
Stand Tall hasn't risen through the grades with quite the alarming speed of Shariat's On Fire, but he's still a newcomer to open company racing.
He jumps from 1600m to 2100m, but has always looked as though his best form would be in middle distance racing.
"I'm really looking forward to him getting up over more ground - I've been very keen for that to happen," says co-trainer Russell Cameron. "I've been waiting for this."
Stand Tall has had only two races beyond 1600m in distance, in the first of them being beaten a head by eventual Wellington Cup winner Willy Smith in a distance maiden at Te Rapa three years ago.
He then went to Ellerslie for a stakes race and was pulled up on the journey.
He will be ridden again by apprentice Chad Ormsby, who this week travelled north from Canterbury to join the Cameron-McCrea stable after a stint with Pam Gerard in the South Island.
For such a big, long-striding horse the No 1 barrier is probably not ideal around Ellerslie, but Ormsby is riding with good judgment and his main task will be to get Stand Tall off the rail and into a position to challenge from.
Not that it affects this race which is clearly not a claiming race, but last Saturday at Riccarton Ormsby rode his 100th winner, losing the final 1kg of his claim.
Stand Tall has had his three winning runs this preparation reasonably well spaced and still looks to be on an upward curve.
The mares Gaze and Ombre Rose have the class to trouble this field. Both performed well in the Hastings spring treble, Ombre Rose finishing 2.75 lengths off Princess Coup in the $2 million Kelt Capital and Gaze, after a slightly interrupted home-straight run, was just 1.25 lengths from Princess Coup.
That's wonderful form for a handicap with Ombre Rose looking the better placed at the weights of the pair.
Under the weight-for-age scale of the Kelt Capital, Gaze and Ombre Rose carried 56.5kg. This time Gaze has half a kilo more and Ombre Rose 2kg less.
Ombre Rose produced tough, dour finishes at Hastings, which will be ideally suited to this race and the No 5 barrier draw looks perfect to provide the ideal passage in running.
Kerry O'Reilly was beaten half a head at Te Rapa last start by lightweight Altesino who also takes her place here. Kerry O'Reilly had only one race start this preparation going into that race and Altesino had won two of her previous three starts.
With the weight relativity almost the same, you would have to fancy a fitter Kerry O'Reilly to finish in front of Altesino if they enjoy equal luck.
With 58kg equal topweight, Figure Of Speech is paying the price for winning handicaps in winter which, while lucrative, make it difficult because of weight to win again when this really big money is on the line.
Any rain to ease the footing would definitely be in his favour.
Ntamack might not be everyone's idea of a Cups horse , but there is no denying his talent when he decides to put it all together. On 52.5kg he could be a dangerous lightweight.
It might pay to remember Ntamack went up to win this race last year, then violently ducked sideways with about 120m to run, nearly throwing Cameron Lammas off his back.
He ended up third behind Chettak, but the run showed what the gelding was capable of in the best of company.
$200,000 CUP
* Stand Tall has always looked a stayer in the making, but leg problems have long delayed that opportunity.
* He gets his first real opportunity over a middle distance in tomorrow's big Cup at Ellerslie.
* The mares Ombre Rose and Gaze are strong hopes after their efforts during the Hastings spring treble.