KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Oaks runner-up Overkaast may not get an easier race all season to push for a return to group one racing than at Te Aroha today.
But Cambridge co-trainer Royce Dowling says his $21 fixed-odds chance in the $200,000 Avondale Cup is still no certainty to run next Wednesday.
"There's no hurry with her," said Dowling, who trains in partnership with daughter Linda Laing.
"We think she'll be a better mare in the autumn so there's no panic. We'll just be guided by how she goes tomorrow [Wednesday] and make a decision from there.
"But if she's beaten there're no excuses; she's just not good enough."
Dowling believes the long-striding grey should have won last time out when pipped a nose by Counties Cup runner Twopaddocks in a R90 2000m race at Hastings.
A sharp movement inward near the 300m cost the potential staying star victory in a slickly run race. Third-placed Kaapeon Way came out next time to impressively beat a handy field on the same course last Saturday.
Overkaast and regular rider Lynsey Satherley meet nothing as strong today, with the biggest threats likely to be in-form one-pacer Bold Contact and course specialist Chatalot.
The latter, however, needs more give in the track before threatening a mare of the class of Overkaast.
If she misses the Avondale Cup, Dowling says other options for Overkaast include the $100,000 Dunstan Feeds Championship (2200m) at Ellerslie on New Year's Day.
He believes it's a year too soon to attack races like the Wellington and Auckland cups over 3200m.
"We'll look at something bigger in the autumn; maybe across the ditch somewhere," said Dowling, who also has stablemate Twinkling entered for the Avondale feature.
"She's only a lightly-framed mare and still needs to mature a bit."
Matangi trainer Dean Phillips is in no rush, either, with his cups' contender Luckshan who resumes today in the Maber Motors 1300.
This year's SkyCity Auckland Cup Prelude winner hasn't raced since putting his foot in a hole in the Opunake Cup in July.
"He buggered his knee and it's taken this long to get him right," said Phillips. "He spent six weeks in a box and another month in a pen. I think he's right now."
