Things are really hotting-up for the $300,000 Group 1 Victoria Cup.

In a day of twists, reigning NZ Cup winner Swayzee and comeback star Captain Ravishing joined the mix for Australia’s next Grand Circuit race at Melton on October 12.

It is quite fitting Friday week’s Kilmore Cup meeting will help shape the strength of the Victorian raid on New Zealand’s most prestigious trotting race, the $400,000 Dominion Trot.

It was just 18 months ago when Captain Ravishing was the most exciting pacer in Australia.

When he streaked away with the 4YO Bonanza at Melton in February, last year, Captain Ravishing had won seven of his past eight starts and was a raging hot favourite for the inaugural $2.1mil TAB Eureka.

IT is a bit scary to think it’s closing in on 25 years since the great Lyell Creek started stamping his dominance.

Time certainly flies.

Young Aussie Brad Chisholm is starting to make his mark in the U.S.

The 26-year-old’s biggest opportunity yet comes at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Sunday (Sept. 1) when he will team with the first three U.S. horses owned by champion Aussie trainer Luke McCarthy.

High Above will be the least experienced horse to contest a TAB Eureka, but he has X-factor in every corner.

The key to any successful sporting event is talkability.

When the TAB Eureka was launched a couple of years ago, HRA chief Andrew Kelly’s wish was for the race to be “talked about 24/7, 365 days a year.”

Champion trainer Emma Stewart became just the second Victorian harness trainer to win the "card" at Kilmore last night.

Star pacer Better Eclipse has won 22 races and over $1.2 million, but trainer Jess Tubbs believes his could still be yet to come.

The gelding launches his biggest and most ambitious campaign yet when he returns from a spell in the Legend Popular Alm & Vin Knight free-for-all (1720m) at Melton on Saturday night.

There is something really exciting about this juvenile crop.

Being trackside and watching a stellar field smash the clock in the inaugural $500,000 Protostar at Albion Park a month ago really highlighted this could be a vintage crop.

Trainer Brent Lilley spent more than a year plotting how to try and beat Just Believe, now’s he is happy to avoid him whenever he can.

Lilley’s stable star Queen Elida is one of the best trotters in this part of the world, but like the rest, Just Believe is simply too good for her.

Just Believe’s record of 13 starts this year for 11 wins and two seconds says as much.

Champion trotter Just Believe headlines a long and impressive list of Victorian stars preparing to chase huge races at home and far away in coming months.

The global megastar could make an unlikely midweek racing return in next Tuesday’s $30,000 Shepparton Trotters’ Cup.

In the hours after Leap To Fame’s mesmerizing Blacks A Fake win, many wondered what horses could possibly challenge him in the back half of the year.

The answer is probably none, given his sheer dominance and the fact he seems to still be getting better.

Maybe, and only just maybe, going to NZ the first time and the standing start could be some query for the NZ Cup?

Victoria has been a rich hunting ground for Jason Grimson.

TAB Eureka night just got even bigger for Victoria.

After dominating Menangle’s inaugural TAB Eureka last year with Encipher winning the Eureka itself and Rock N Roll Doo taking out the Group 1 Len Smith, the Victorians will be back in force at Sydney’s home of harness on September 7.

Aside from the Victorians already in or expected to tackle the $2.1mil TAB Eureka, Victoria’s top open-class pacer Catch A Wave is Menangle-bound as well.

In the dark depths of the pandemic, harness racing lost much of its essence with Kiwi participation in our biggest races grinding to a halt.

So many of our biggest and best races through recent history have included superstars New Zealanders winning or adding another dimension to them.

Premier driver Kate Gath gave exciting youngster Hesitate a big tick of approval after driving him for the first time at the Melton trials yesterday.

It was forerunner to Gath taking the reins on the Damien Burns-trained colt in Australia’s richest two-year-old race, the inaugural $500,000 Protostar at Albion Park on July 27.

The biggest three weeks of Queensland’s fantastic winter racing are yet to come, but there’s already been plenty of drama and controversy.

The three biggest pacing guns – Leap To Fame, Swayzee and Frankie Ferocious - of the Queensland Constellations have all been in the headlines for the wrong reasons.