KEY POINTS:
There was the "Oh, no" factor when Phil Stevens looked out the window at lunchtime in Matamata yesterday.
After a rain disaster at Rotorua last start, the last thing Stevens wanted to see for Kristov at Ellerslie tomorrow was rain.
Kristov started favourite at Rotorua two weeks ago, but failed completely to handle a track that became heavy with torrential rain.
Stevens said he thought about late scratching the weight-for-age star when the track was officially downgraded.
"I thought about pulling him out, it got down to 50-50. I suppose I was swayed by the fact that at Palmerston North he got through a wet track last season.
"But Rotorua is different."
Kristov finished 6.5 lengths off winner Sir Slick and Stevens said he wouldn't hestitate to pull the horse out if rain affected the Ellerslie surface for tomorrow's $70,000 Great Northern Challenge Stakes.
He probably won't have to worry.
A couple of days out from the meeting at Ellerslie last Saturday the surface was rated dead, but by raceday the good weather saw the conditions very firm.
There was heavy rain in Auckland yesterday on a track that was rated 2.4 and good.
Showers are predicted to continue, but unless they are persistent the footing might stay in the Kristov zone.
It is never easy to lead or share the pace in small weight-for-age fields, but at his best Kristov would have the better of this field.
Sir Slick continues to be underrated - and his Rotorua win was stunning - but an at-peak Kristov is as good in this type of race as New Zealand has.
Rider Reese Jones said Kristov felt good within himself at Rotorua and Stevens says the tough effort on a testing track has had no ill effects.
"He bounces through his races very well," Jones said.
He's in top shape."
Sir Slick has done well to pick up $303,500 in stakes after having been beaten by top horses in almost all the big-money races.
He is durable as well as talented and looks the main danger in his current form.
It is extremely difficult to drop back from 2100m to 1600m in seven days, but Fiscal Madness is not out of contention.
Given he carried 58kg clear topweight in last week's Counties Cup, Fiscal Madness did well to finish fifth, only 2.75 lengths from winner Chettak.
He tends to sit just off the speed and finish strongly and in tomorrow's little field he will get his chance to have a crack at the leaders in the final 200m.
Molta, Madame Shinko and Shinko Prince are trifecta chances, but Kristov will probably have to have conditions against him or experience shocking luck in running to yield.
