KEY POINTS:
The enormity of the task facing Sir Slick in tomorrow's $200,000 Champions Mile at Ellerslie can be gauged on five or six different levels.
If the outstanding free-runner can lump his 60.5kg and win, it won't be a metric weight-carrying record, but it deserves to be.
Grey Way managed to win the race - then known as the Easter Handicap - in 1977 carrying 60.5kg.
But then Grey Way was Grey Way.
In an era of outstanding horses he managed to carry a club foot to 51 victories, winning every season from two until he was 10.
Grey Way beat Kiwi Can and Tudor Light, who between them had won the previous two Easters.
Shivaree, another topliner, won with 58kg in 1981, but overall winning weights in the Easter have been relatively light, despite the race having been won by some very good horses.
In the past dozen years the winning weights have been: 54kg, 53.5, 54, 54.5, 55, 54, 53.5, 54.5, 52, 50.5, 49.5, 49.5.
It's not just the weight itself Sir Slick has to overcome, it's the relativity factor, which of course is the bottom line of all handicapping.
For example, Gaze received 2.5kg from Sir Slick when she narrowly beat him in the Starcraft Stakes at Ellerslie at her last start and this time gets 5kg from him.
At the end of a tough group-one race, 5kg is an awful lot of weight.
Then you have Sir Slick's track record - 12 starts at Ellerslie and only five placings.
There is no question Sir Slick is a much better horse now than for the majority of those 12 races, but Ellerslie does not perfectly suit his front-running style.
The Auckland track is nowhere near a front runner's paradise that tracks such as Te Aroha, Avondale, Pukekohe or even Trentham and Te Rapa can be.
There is a rise in the Ellerslie home straight and although leaders can win, it's difficult to do it in the top grade races where a horse is unlikely to get away with a soft lead.
But topline horses overcome statistics - Sir Slick has done that before and punters will make him favourite to say he can do it again tomorrow.
The one certainty is that he won't give in without a fight.
One of the biggest dangers to Sir Slick is the weather.
If the showers that have been around last through tomorrow, the Ellerslie surface could be affected, particularly if there is moisture once racing has begun.
An "off" track would make it significantly harder to lead with 60.5kg.
Final Reality trailed Sir Slick and could not get past him at Tauranga and meets the other horse only 0.5kg better this time. That would not have been enough to level them up at Tauranga.
However, Final Reality is a little underrated and hasn't had the greatest luck in three starts in the north. On 53kg he looms as a real threat, particularly with moisture in the ground.
Final Reality has won on most types of footing, but his record on rain-affected footing tells you what you need to know - two from three in the slow and four from eight in the heavy stuff.
Gaze is a quality mare and is not too badly off with 55.5kg. Because she has to turn back to 1600m from 2000m, trainer Roger James has kept her fresh and she looked good winning a barrier trial at Pukekohe last week.
