KEY POINTS:
There probably isn't a home straight in New Zealand that suits Samurai better than Riccarton.
Not that the little-raced, underrated metric miler has raced on Christchurch's pride and joy.
But Samurai will be out to prove the point in tomorrow's $125,000 Winter Cup.
And probably no jockey suits Samurai better than Noel Harris, one of the truly great exponents of timing a horse's run at the leaders in the closing stage of a race.
Samurai has a great record - five wins and five seconds from just 17 starts, but being a back runner he has had more than his share of bad-luck traffic problems.
If the racing pattern tomorrow is not against horses running on from the middle or the back of the field, Samurai's ability to hit the line strongly should prove difficult to repel.
He had a long break from racing, coming back after seven months to score stylishly at Hastings on June 30, a race that will have fitted him nicely for this.
Last spring he showed how unlucky he can be as a back runner, finishing on strongly with little racing room from the tail to be 3 1/2 lengths from the winner Floydeboy in a feature at Awapuni and next time chasing home King Of Ashford, who turned in one of his career best efforts to win the Matamata Cup.
In that race he once again displayed how disadvantaged back runners can be against class horses like King Of Ashford.
Balancing that is the Riccarton racing pattern that often seems to shorten the distance from front to back as a field fans out in the home straight.
That is what will assist Samurai. So will his comfortable 54.5kg.
One of the toughest to beat could be Lord Monty, just back from a busy Queensland campaign.
He failed to win a race on this trip to Australia, but his overall form was first class.
Anyone who saw the Glasshouse at Caloundra on June 30 will swear he won the race instead of going down by a nose to Hard To Catch.
"It was an extended nostril that beat him that day," says trainer Peter McKenzie.
"He copped some interference from the winner in the home straight, but Hard To Catch's owner and trainer Pat Duff has been a mate of mine for years and I couldn't bring myself to protest.
"Two years ago Lord Monty just beat Hard To Catch under similar circumstances and Pat said this time was poetic justice."
The Caloundra race was one of the few times Lord Monty struck a suitable rain-affected track.
At his last start at Eagle Farm, only two weeks ago, the footing was too firm, but he still finished only one length from the winner Daring Fortune in fourth place.
"In a perfect world I probably shouldn't have given him that last run and freshened him for the travel, but with little irrigation being done it was difficult to get good work into them in Queensland."
Lord Monty will once again prove what an iron horse he is if he wins.
"I guess there is a question mark over him because of the travelling he's done. He had to float down from Brisbane to Sydney to fly home. He spent a few days in Te Awamutu before arriving home, now we've had this trip to Christchurch."
Lord Monty has had one start at Riccarton for a win and the 1600m is his pet distance.
Kenadaad's form has been superb.
The impressive feature of his last-start Opunake Cup win was the speed with which he established a winning break on the field soon after rounding the home turn at New Plymouth.
Given the extreme length of the Riccarton home straight, the run to the winning post this time will be a lot more difficult to sustain, particularly with 59kg clear topweight, but he is a very game racehorse.
Southerners Delbrae and Final Reality should give a good sight and Spin Around has done enough since coming back from Hong Kong to suggest he is worth considering.
