At Taree on Sunday, the Woodward stable struck some stiff opposition and  a close fourth to Minimos was as near as the stable were going to come to the Dias.

Minimos however did run a huge race coming from tenth on the home turn to finish just out of the placings at the business end of the race.

His fourth however points to better things to come.

Melanie O'Gorman seems to have a very good stable of potentials at the moment.

On Sunday at Cessnock Melanie started First Alliance.

First Alliance raced in fifth place for the major part of the journey but finished the race off well to finish second.

A different story at Dubbo on Monday when Melanie unveiled a potential top liner in Suncraze.

Suncraze was having his first start and went into the race a short-priced favourite on top of some very good barrier trial form.

Suncraze was last out of the barrier on a heavy 10 surface and raced in second last place to the 400 where the jockey set him alight.

Suncraze showed tremendous acceleration on a very heavy surface to pick them up easily ridden hands and heels to win by five lengths.

Suncraze has a brilliant future and a trip to town would not surprise as well as a win in town.

Certainly one to watch.

This weekend will see the Woodward stable travel to Port Macquarie with four nominated at this stage.

With the heavy rain about, it will certainly almost be a heavy 10 surface for the community meeting featuring the Laurieton Cup.

Meanwhile in metro racing, while Darren Weir's vast resources of quality racehorses will be on display this Saturday in the $500,000 Memsie Stakes at Caulfield, another trainer from over the border will be hoping that his sole entrant can return to his best in the first group 1 for the season.

Weir, whose astonishing run of success has seen him create one of the most successful racing stables in the country, will have four runners in Saturday's event that will include Melbourne Cup winner Prince of Penzance.

However, for Tony McEvoy Saturday's race will be an all-important barometer to the short-term future of his gifted galloper Alpine Eagle.

Having missed the autumn and spring carnivals, Alpine Eagle displayed in the autumn of 2015 what a talent he was with some remarkable performances.

"He cracked his pedal bone after that campaign. He missed the spring and autumn and has only had one start and that was in May since the incident," McEvoy said.

"He looks great and has worked really well.”