Graham Dwyer feels like he already won.

While that feeling won’t pay off in cold hard cash for the punters who back favourite Not As Promised in Sunday’s $110,000 King Of The North NZ Trotting Derby, for Dwyer just being in New Zealand for the classic as as good as a victory.

It is rare enough having a young Australian trotter in a NZ Derby, even rarer him being pacing-bred and downright unbelievable Not As Promised in trained in Queensland.

And he is favourite after winning the Victoria Derby and Breeders Crown like a very good horse, beating Northern Derby winner Lovemeto in that Vic Derby.

Dwyer, his son Layne and Not As Promised have settled in nicely at Brent and Tim White’s Ashburton property and say so far, so good heading to Sunday.

“He has travelled well and seems happy so we can’t wait,” says 49-year-old Dwyer.

“We are excited but not just by the prospect of winning because we really can’t control that.

“This is huge for us, bringing a horse to New Zealand, let alone a trotter and taking on the locals.

“We have enormous respect for the locals because New Zealand breeds such good trotters so we are just thrilled to be here.

“We have a horse going to Addington to race in a group 1 and while we have had plenty of good horses before this is all new for us.

“So we are loving it and winning isn’t the be all and end all. As long as he does himself proud and gets around safe we will be happy.

“After all, this is the end of a long campaign and he has come such a long way. So we are going to enjoy it.”

While New Zealand has produced some great young trotters this year’s three-year-old crop has been even with few standouts and two of the better in Lovemeto and the sadly lost Isolate aren’t in Sunday’s race.

If Not As Promised is going to go where no Queensland trotter has ever gone before (the Addington winner’s circle) he will need to overcome a wide front line draw but even that isn’t worrying Dwyer.

“That is Nathan’s job,” he says of young driver Nathan Dawson.

“He is a greart instinctive drive and does his homework as well so I am sure he will give him his chance.”

It is hard to line up Not As Promised’s form against the locals, especially when maybe the most talented of the locals in Confessional seems to prefer galloping to trotting.

Sunnys Sister can win, so too can Gold Bullion but he got the gallops too last week and a horse with a future is Bet N Win but he looks new and gangly, with his rev counter still out of sync with his legs.

There are good fillies in the race from right around the country but like last year almost nothing would surprise in this Derby.

Apart from the fact a Queensland trotter is favourite and the horse to beat.

That still takes some getting your head around. For us, and Graham Dwyer.

The opinions expressed in The Forum are those of the author and may not be attributed to or represent policies of Harness Racing Victoria, which is the state authority and owner of thetrots.com.au.