It has been a vintage season for the uncle and nephew combination of Lawrie Fownes and Wendyll Woods and in the impressive debut winner Taurus they look to have one of the best griffins of the current crop.
Taurus drew right away from Hunting Lad and Happy Monies on Queen Elizabeth II Cup day, despite appearing to have worked hard when vying for the lead in the initial stages of that 1,000-metre contest.
But that view from the stands was emphatically refuted by Woods who is riding on the crest of a wave and well on the way to set a new personal benchmark in the territory.
After racing on QEII Cup day, he stressed: 'It wasn't that we were working hard early, the reverse was the case. They weren't going fast enough for my horse.
'I was looking for something to give us more of a lead, but he was just cantering over the top of them.' Taurus is entered and expected to run down the straight 1,000-metre chute this weekend and doesn't appear to have too many dangers though the likes of Wong Tang-ping's improving Danswinner, Ivan Allan's newcomer Holy Grail, Andy Leung's International Sale purchase Silver Collector and Derek Cruz's natural runner, Solid Contact, are likely to keep him honest.
But keeping Taurus honest under his seven-pound penalty is a different thing from beating him and yesterday the son of Rory's Jester looked in tip-top condition as he floated through his 800-metre hitout.