Guineas distance to suit Good Standing

James Cummings has taken the opportunity to give Good Standing a look around Caulfield in an exercise the trainer believes will be invaluable for the colt going into a $1 million race at the track.

Good Standing runs in Saturday’s Group One Caulfield Guineas and on Tuesday morning he worked in company with stablemate Smart Amelia, who is in Saturday’s Group One Thousand Guineas (1400m).

“You had to be happy with the way they both balanced up and stretched out late within themselves,” Cummings said.

Cummings kept Good Standing in Sydney for the Stan Fox Stakes in which he finished third, believing the 1500m suited him better at that stage of his campaign than the 1400m of the Guineas Prelude at Caulfield.

The trainer said the opportunity to work at Caulfield on Tuesday was important ahead of his next assignment.

“He’s just a horse that needs plenty of practice at things so it’s going to be hugely beneficial for him as an individual,” Cummings said.

“I’ve been trying to do everything we can to get him on his Melbourne leg and he seems to have shown a bit of benefit of that this morning because I thought he got around pretty capably.

“But he’s going to know he’s in a race on Saturday because it’s a really good field.”

Impending and Divine Prophet were able to come from behind Good Standing in the Stan Fox but Cummings said the way Good Standing kept working to the line indicated he wanted further again.

“I think of all those horses, I think my horse is really looking for the mile,” he said.

The past two Caulfield Guineas winners have come through the Stan Fox, with Press Statement (2015) and Shooting To Win (2014) winning both.

Cummings, however, rates Prelude winner Sacred Elixir as the hardest to beat.

Impending is the favourite ahead of Divine Prophet, Sacred Elixir and Good Standing who will be ridden by last year’s winning jockey Hugh Bowman.

Good Standing finished ninth in the Run To The Rose before his fifth in the Golden Rose (1400m) and third in the Stan Fox (1500m) this campaign.

“I hope he’s building to a peak,” Cummings said.

“He got back to his PB I think last start and now he’s got a platform ready to go on with it. This is his first attempt at 1600 metres but I really feel like he’s been looking for it.”