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By Ray Hickson

“She must be just about the best maiden in the country.”

Rob & Annabel Archibald

It’s a tag that co-trainer Annabel Archibald would be more than happy for Tupakara to shake off after Saturday’s Group 1 $750,000 Darley Flight Stakes (1600m) at Randwick.

A year ago at the same meeting the filly stepped out for the first time and ran fourth in the Gimcrack Stakes and she’s campaigned exclusively in stakes company through her career to date.

After five placings on end, Archibald said she’d love Tupakara to shake off that maiden tag in a Group 1 event and is expecting her to bounce back from a disappointing second-up run.

While she ran third in the Tea Rose (1400m) behind Apocalyptic it let the stable down given she was heavily backed and enjoyed a perfect run into the race.

“She obviously needs to improve another length or two,’’ Archibald, who co-trains with husband Rob, said.

“Her first-up run was massive, she was back from a wide draw and really rallied home. You’d probably argue that day had she drawn a gate she might have won the race.

“She was a touch disappointing second-up, she had the run of the race one-out one-back but they can do that when they have a really, really, big first run. They can run a bit flat second-up.”

Tupakara, $6 with TAB on Thursday, has experience at the Flight distance with a Group 1 placing in the Champagne Stakes back in April.

Archibald was hoping for another inside alley, she came up with the outside in the 11 horse field, but hopes that experience from the autumn is an ace up her sleeve.

“We know she loves the mile, she went close to winning a Champagne here,’’ she said.

“No doubt the favourite will be hard to beat but they are young fillies, they can change and anything can happen. I can’t fault our horse.”

Stablemate Next Jen does have a win on the board, from her debut back in March, and she’s lined up alongside Tupakara in her four subsequent starts.

The Dulcify, run over the same distance, was considered for Next Jen but Archibald said she deserves another chance at a Group 1 race.

Like Tupakara, her first-up run pleased Archibald but not so much her second-up effort.

“She was brilliant first-up, she had a bit of a checkered path in the straight and should have finished closer,’’ she said.

“She was disappointing second-up but again she might have been a bit flat as well.

“We put the blinkers on her and Chad (Schofield) came and sat on her and he was really happy. She’s a very relaxed filly and hopefully that can just switch her on a bit.

“I know she has got the talent to be there. She’s only a three-year-old filly once and even a Group 1 placing probably looks better than a Listed win.”

It’s a liking for the mile distance that Archibald says is the case for Depth Of Character to surprise in the Group 1 $1.5m TAB Epsom Handicap (1600m).

The four-year-old has finished top three in five of his eight starts at the trip, including two wins earlier this year, and showed he’s ready to step up to his pet trip with a closing third in the Group 3 Bill Ritchie two weeks ago.

“When we put him out to the paddock it was with this race in mind,’’ she said.

Tupakara runs third in the Tea Rose Stakes

“He loves the mile, it’s his absolute pet trip but he takes a couple of runs to get there. He raced a bit fresh first-up, he was much better second up.

“Anything can happen in these handicaps and with 50kg on his back, and if he can a suck run with a light weight, he’s a top three chance.”

Depth Of Character is a $41 chance in the Epsom.

Annabel Archibald on Don Diego De Vega (race 9): “He was very fresh in the gates (at Newcastle), Dylan was lucky not to knock his head, and then they walked. He was never going to be in the race mathematically from where he was but it probably ended up the ideal run for him leading into this. I think he’s really flying under the radar.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Epsom meeting at Randwick