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Lance Noble is on the verge of a new training venture, but for the moment his focus is on achieving a Group One result for a band of special owners.

The Matamata horseman, who will shortly take up the role as private trainer at Brendan and Jo Lindsay’s Karaka operation, is putting the finishing touches on his Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup hope Rose Of Virginia.

“It’s going to be quite sentimental,” Noble said. “Alan and Colleen Jackson and Alan and Rob Burnet really helped to get me going early on and they’ve continued to support me,” Noble said.

They bred Rose Of Virginia and race her with a syndicate that also includes another pair of stable stalwarts.

“Les and Marion Pettifer were in Viadana (a triple Group One winner) and they have under-pinned most of the yearlings we’ve bought in the last few years – they’ve taken shares in a lot of horses,” Noble said.

Completing the ownership in Rose Of Virginia are the newcomers Simon and Dallas Barrett.

“This is the first horse they’ve had and they’ve also been terrific to deal with,” Noble said.

Rose Of Virginia finished runner-up in the Gr.2 City of Auckland Cup three runs back before she won the Karaka Stayers’ Cup.

She was crowded for room when out of the money in the Gr.2 Avondale Cup, but Noble put her unplaced effort more down to the ground than the run she received.

“She probably wasn’t going well enough to hold that gap and if you look at her record all six of her wins have been on good tracks,” he said.

“When the going is a bit false or dead she doesn’t seem to have the same acceleration - I think her form stacks up nicely.

“If they haven’t ever run two miles there’s always a question mark, but everything she has done suggests to me that she will cope.”