Having been down in the dumps a day ago at the end of the dressage phase, a terrific performance on a demanding cross country course has New Zealand just two rails behind Australia going into the deciding show jumping phase.
Australia are in the gold medal position with 150.30 penalty points, New Zealand are on 154.80 with France on 161.0 and the favoured Germans in fourth on 172.8.
If Australia drop a collective two rails and New Zealand's three remaining riders, Mark Todd, Clarke Johnstone and Jonelle Price, have clear rounds, they will win the team gold medal.
In addition, Todd sits fourth in the individual standings, Johnstone equal sixth and Price 13th. The fourth New Zealand team member, Tim Price, was eliminated on the cross country.
"There's still a long way to go," Johnstone said. But he recalled the words of team mate Jonelle Price 24 hours earlier: "it's called three-day eventing for a reason."
New Zealand will have their eyes on the French as well. If they drop two rails and the French team go clear, New Zealand would slip to third.
Australia still hold the top individual position, through Christopher Burton on 37.6, with German champion Michael Jung second on 40.9 and French rider Nicolas Astier third on 42. Todd, who has won two individual gold medals to go with three bronze, would need Astier to drop rails at two fences, and go clear himself aboard Leonidas II to get into the bronze position.
If Todd snares a medal tomorrow it would be his sixth and he would become New Zealand's most successful Olympian, one ahead of paddlers Ian Ferguson and Paul Macdonald.
Burton rode a clear cross country round and if he repeats that tomorrow he cannot be caught for individual gold.
But the three New Zealanders all made significant jumps up the leaderboard in the course of what is rated among the tougher Olympic cross country courses in recent memory.
Todd had only two time penalty points to jump from 17th after the dressage to fourth; Johnstone and Balmoral Sensation went from 23rd to equal seventh; while Price made a quantum stride from 43rd to 13th.
"The fences come at you thick and fast and it was fairly hard to keep up a good gallop," Todd said.
"But I had to take the risk, and the horse responded and stayed really rideable. He isn't always like that, but he was really good all the way to the line."
Todd is 60 and an old hand at this game. These are his eighth Olympics and he remains as competitive as ever.
"I'm over the moon that I've gone well and the horse was absolutely superb. It's always a nervous time before you start, you don't want to make a mistake but the horse was so good."
As for Johnstone, competing at his first Olympics, "elation" best summed up his feelings.
"[Balmoral Sensation] finished amazingly well. I expected he'd be quite tired. He's not the fastest horse so you have to be at top speed all the way but he jumped well all the way to the end."
The question now is how well the horses will pull up tomorrow. There will be a vet's inspection to pass before the showjumping phase and New Zealand can't afford a problem, with only three riders left. Tim Price's elimination was a blow, as it puts plenty of heat on the remaining three.
"He has a fantastic show jumping record," Johnstone said of Balmoral Sensation. "As do the other two horses on our team. I would hope they'll bounce back really well overnight."
