The Kiwis are coming.
After decades of New Zealand’s best pillaging Australia’s biggest races, especially the Victorian features, we have seen quite the role reversal in the past three years.
Kick-started by Swayzee in that 2023 NZ Cup, we’ve seen the likes of Just Believe, Leap To Fame, Arcee Phoenix, Keayang Zahara, Tracy The Jet and Kyvalley Ray dish it to the Kiwis on their home ground.
Some felt it was a new normal, but the tide was always going to turn.
The dramatic improvement in the Aussie breed, especially our trotters, means we won’t see the sort of Kiwi dominance we did through the 1980s, ‘90s and early 2000s.
But it was folly to think the Kiwis would just lay down and cop the hiding they have been.
They’re such a proud nation, especially when it comes to harness racing.
Now the response has come, in a daunting fashion.
The first real hint came in the back half of last year with the stirring rivalry of their star three-year-old pacers Got The Chocolates and Marketplace.
We also saw four-year-old The Lazarus Effect rocket through the classes and Jumal proved he is not just a champion two-year-old, but a horse could be just about anything in time.
All four strutted their stuff during last November’s NZ Cup Week, albeit Kingman and Leap To Fame still stole the show for Australia with a quinella in the Cup itself.
Even when Leap To Fame returned for what’s probably the greatest win of his career yet in last month’s Race by Sport Nation at Cambridge, there was a feeling the Kiwis were on the march.
A feeling that the story would be different by the time the race came around again next year.
Maybe even as soon as the NZ Cup in November.
The past few weeks in Auckland have shown why the optimism was there.
Got The Chocolates has emerged as a potential superstar with a luckless third in the Taylor Mile and then those stunning wins in the Roy Purdon Memorial and last Friday night’s Messenger.
As good as he was last year, he’s gone to a whole new level.
Yes, champion Aussie stayer Swayzee may be past his best and never looked really comfortable going the opposite direction at Alexandra Park, but the way Got The Chocolates toyed with him last Friday was a bit scary.
He treated him like a B-grader, a champion stayer with two Hunter Cups, two NZ Cups and a Victoria Cup on his CV.
The Lazarus Effect also beat home Swayzee in all three of those races, winning the Taylor Mile and finishing second in the Purdon and Messenger.
He doesn’t have the X-factor of Got The Chocolates and simply he’s not as good, but he’s still a serious horse.
Meanwhile, Marketplace has continued on his merry way more quietly down south at Addington with two wins from as many starts this campaign.
And Jumal treated his Northern Derby rivals with disdain last Friday week in Auckland.
So, when do we get to see them take on more of the Aussies?
Marketplace looks certain to head to Queensland for the $350,000 Group 1 Rising Sun on July 4.
It’s still a stepping stone race, but he’ll have some serious rivals and it’ll give us another great guide on where he sits.
But we’ll have to wait longer, almost certainly NZ Cup time, to see he or Got The Chocolates take on Leap To Fame.
“If we won the Rising Sun, we wouldn’t take up the golden ticket into the Inter Dominion final,” Marketplace’s trainer Regan Todd said. “We don’t need to take on Leap To Fame on his home patch just yet.”
Got The Chocolates goes out for another break now with a complete NZ Cup focus.
The Lazarus Effect is nominated for the Inter Dominion, but it is increasingly likely he will also stay home and aim at the NZ Cup.
A decision on whether Jumal goes to Brisbane for the Rising Sun will be made after Friday week’s Group 1 3YO Sires’ Stake final at Addington.
PHOTO: HRNZ/Race Images NZ
