Victorian raiders will play a huge role again when New Zealand takes centre stage this week.

The Keayang Zahara team are the other big winners from The Locomotive’s exciting tilt at Sweden’s iconic Elitlopp next month.

Most immediately, the trip means one of Keayang Zahara’s major rivals in her first open-class target – July’s Brisbane Inter Dominion – won’t be there.

Do we need sprint lanes?

That’s a question we as an industry, especially in Victoria, need to genuinely ask ourselves.

Don’t assume, don’t listen to a few opinions, let’s do some serious homework on it.

It is Miracle Mile week, but it is also one of the biggest weeks in owner-breeder Peter Gleeson’s 55 years in the game.

The Maryborough-based Gleeson currently has 59 on his books, including 21 with Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin.

Regally-bred four-year-old Bay Of Biscay earned an invitation but connections were quick to turn down a Miracle Mile start following a spectacular effort to win Saturday night's $250,000 Cordina Chicken Farms Chariots Of Fire at Club Menangle.

Amongst the euphoria of the massively successful Ultimate Driver Championship, there was a clear message to the industry.

The dial has shifted, albeit just slightly.

As we rolled into 2025, most felt it would be another year of Leap To Fame dominance in our biggest races.

Just Believe’s historic NZ Horse of the Year crown could be a sign of things to come.

With NZ prizemoney on the rise and rich new races popping up, it’s a happy hunting ground for Aussie trainers.

While Hunter Cup winner Swayzee will miss the $1mil Miracle Mile, his trainer Jason Grimson has just landed the brilliant Captain Ravishing to target Australia’s premier speed test next month.

In a surprise twist, Captain Ravishing was flown back from Perth to Melbourne yesterday (Monday) and will join Swayzee on a road trip to Grimson’s Menangle stables later this week.

You could hear the groans go through Cranbourne a couple of years ago when the club’s Cup was moved to the week after the Hunter Cup.

Most feared it would be a disaster.

Young gun driver Cam Hart knows how to beat Leap To Fame and has a plan to do it again in Saturday night’s Group 1 Hunter Cup.

Hart drives Swayzee, the older half-brother to Leap To Fame, who famously beat him when they first clashed in a epic contest in the 2023 Group 1 Blacks A Fake at Albion Park.

The mantle is sitting empty, at least for six months or so.

Who will step-up and grab as Australia’s best trotter with Just Believe retired and Callmethebreeze limbo?

IT was early October, 2022.

I rang Greg Sugars to chat for a preview story a few days ahead of the Group 1 Bill Collins Trot.

A regular preview yarn turned into so much more when Sugars started waxing lyrically about the potential a relatively new stable addition, Just Believe, had.

Popular Victorian trainer Scotty Ewen can’t believe what he is seeing.

Almost eight years after his stable star Bulletproof Boy raced for the first time, somehow the now 10-year-old has “gone to a whole new level.”

It feels a bit like the good old days.

Those heady times in harness racing through the 1990s and early 2000s when we would watch with a mix of excitement and trepidation when the Kiwis stars crossed the ditch to chase Victoria’s biggest races.

The Kiwis won every Hunter Cup from 1993 to 1997 and a whopping 13 of them between 1993 and 2016.

They were similarly dominant in the Victoria Cup with 10 wins between 1993 and 2017.

Avoiding mighty stayer Swayzee and a love of smaller tracks is why classy NSW pacer Kanena Provlima is back in Victoria trying to go one better than he did in last year's Shepparton Gold Cup.

While most horses love the spacious 1400m Menangle track – Sydney’s home of harness racing – co-trainer Robbie Morris says it’s a different story with Kanena Provlima.

Top trainer Jason Grimson loves going bush with his stars.

While Grimson trains at Menangle and boasts a string of mega wins, including two Inter Dominion and two NZ Cups, at major tracks, he is Young and remains a country lad at heart.

After focusing on the equine stars of 2024 in the first part of his 2024 review, Adam Hamilton returns with a broader look at the people, the headlines and more.