James Cummings has been thrilled with the benefit taken by Good Standing in his time away from competition, and is confident the horse is poised for a glittering campaign through the forthcoming Spring Racing Carnival.
Good Standing has only made a handful of appearances at this races since making his debut in the last stages of 2015, but has more than impressed through several commendable performances amongst top-level company.
Conceding the horse is sure to face plenty of stiff opposition at every turn this season, Cummings revealed that Good Standing is set for a return in the Group 2 Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens on August 27th before progression to the Group 1 Golden Rose (1400m) a fortnight later.
“I’m really pleased with him. He’s matured beautifully, that colt,” Cummings told Racing Ahead.
“He’ll be running in the Run To The Rose first-up. It’s shaping up as a really nice race and I think the three-year-old colts in Sydney this spring are going to make for some mouth-watering contests.
“Good Standing isn’t going to have anywhere to hide when he runs first-up in a race like the Run To The Rose – it’s going to be the writing on the wall for who is going to be fighting out the Golden Rose a fortnight later.”
Trialling well in the lead-up to his competitive debut, Good Standing immediately stamped himself as a colt to follow when running on from the rear of the field to place second to subsequent Group 1 champion Yankee Rose in the Golden Gift (1100m) on November 21st.
Again trialling well before his 2016 resumption, the Artie Schiller colt delivered a talented field a comfortable defeat in the Group 2 Skyline Stakes (1200m) at Randwick first-up on February 27th.
Arguably out of his depth somewhat when failing to match the late pace and tenth in the featured Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m) on March 19th, Good Standing returned to the paddock after running on for a positive fifth in the Group 1 ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) on Day 1 of The Championships.