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.

Horsham trainer Aaron Dunn hopes a trip to Queensland later this month is just the first of some exciting travels in coming months.

Dunn is taking his exciting two-year-old Forty Love to Brisbane for two races, including the inaugural $500,000 Ladbrokes Protostar at Albion Park on July 27.

Racing is a cruel game at times.

Just when we were starting to get seriously excited about Extreme Sea, injury strikes and halts his 10-start career.

Spare a thought for veteran Goulburn horseman David Hewitt, who bred, owns, trains and drives the four-year-old.

Forgotten star Honolua Bay is on the verge of an unlikely comeback.

The injury-plagued pacer was the toast of Aussie harness when he brilliantly won the Hunter Cup almost 16 months ago.

Champion trainer Emma Stewart is about to flex her stable muscle in the countdown to the TAB Eureka.

AFTER dominating recent major races in WA and New Zealand, many of Victoria’s best horses are being primed for a massive raid on the winter riches of the Queensland Constellations.

What a glorious flexing of the muscle it's been from a proud harness racing state, starting back on April 12 when the four trotters we had in the inaugural TAB Trot at Cambridge filled the first four placings.

No doubt many of Victoria’s top drivers are waiting and hoping for a phone call.

Last week’s exciting announcement In Queensland of the new Ultimate Driver Championship has certainly sparked loads of chatter.

Owner-breeder Duncan McPherson is drawing inspiration from trotting megastars Just Believe and Sundons Gift when his star Aldebaran Zeus returns from a year of international racing at Melton on Saturday night.

Sundons Gift unsuccessfully took on the world’s best in the 2009 Elitlopp in Sweden and returned an infinitely better horse, winning 15 of his first 20 starts back in Australia.

A Year after they set their sights on exciting pacer The Lost Storm, the Aaron Bain Racing and Summit Bloodstock team have landed their horse.

In a remarkable twist, TAB swept in and snared The Lost Storm ahead of the Aaron Bain Racing and Summit Bloodstock team last year, but they eventually had the last laugh by winning the world's richest harness race with their "back-up" runner, star mare Encipher.

Back in those dark and forgettable days of pandemic, harness racing learned something it should have embraced.

When we were all stuck at home – especially in Melbourne – and crowds are race meetings weren’t a thing, we saw the best races on Saturday night harness meetings from places like Melton, Menangle and sometimes Albion Park, run much earlier in the night.

Gifted pacer The Lost Storm will be "selling himself" when he returns to racing at Melton on Saturday night.

Connections of superstar four-year-old, who boasts 12 wins from just 17 starts, are desperate to snare a slot in the world's richest harness race, the $2.1m TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 7.

The Lost Storm ran in the TAB slot last year when just a three-year-old but was below his best, finishing seventh to stablemate Encipher.

Star four-year-old pacer The Lost Storm will launch his quest for a second crack at the world’s richest harness race when he steps out at Melton on Saturday night.

A winner of 12 of his 17 starts, The Lost Storm will have just his fourth start since last year’s $2.1mil TAB Eureka (September 2) when he resumes in the Bold David free-for-all at Melton.

In fact, the Emma Stewart-trained star has only raced once in the past seven months for an effortless win in the $50,000 Group 3 Melton Plate on March 16.