NOW the dust has settled, it’s time to reflect on the Victoria Cup Carnival.

What a remarkable success it was given all the challenges of COVID and what’s even more exciting is the potential for it to go another level next year.

It still feels a bit weird to say the carnival was at Bendigo, not our home at Melton, but all the whispers and intel suggest it certainly didn’t hurt betting turnover. The dogs are barking some monstrous figures.

And I’m sure it also felt weird for the successful trainers and drivers who didn’t have that important, deserved extra layer of excitement of fans, owners, family and friends cheering trackside. That’s something we all miss, a lot.

VICTORIA Cup night should be a time to celebrate the game we love and that’s exactly what it was at Bendigo last Saturday night.

In the end, it proved a night to enjoy and, in some cases, reminisce on some of the most successful mainstays of our passionate harness racing state.

The Victoria Cup is five days away, but we could know the result just after 7pm tonight.

MOVING countries to chase your dream is one thing, but doing it and emerging from the shadows of a champion father is something else.

That’s what 2021 has been all about for Nathan Purdon.

When you carry the most famous surname in this part of the harness racing world, it has as many challenges as it does advantages. Expectations are high, but so is the pressure.

DAVID Moran knows the importance of looking ahead and not back in this game.

It would’ve been pretty easy to sulk a little when his stable star Lochinvar Art was sidelined indefinitely in his prime and then have NSW Derby winner Patsbeachstorm mysteriously and frustratingly lose his mojo.

But Moran has kept his focus and the opportunities are flowing, big time.

CHAMPION mare Amazing Dream looms as the key fresh player in Victoria’s upcoming feature races.

And, incredibly, trainer Nathan Purdon gets the vibe she may even have improved off her Group 1 victories during a huge Queensland winter campaign.

The past 24 hours have been huge for the Victoria Cup.

It will be awesome to see the untapped General Dodge take on the likes of Wolf Stride, Out To Play, Western Sonador and others in the new $100,000 Group 1 VHRC Caduceus Classic (1650m) at Bendigo on Saturday night.

These certainly are strange and challenging times.

With no signs of the pandemic easing in NSW and Victoria, there’s been lots of talk about what it means for the massively boosted Victoria Cup Carnival and NSW Inter Dominion series.

While it’s important to pause and assess things, the show will and must go on.

If that means both carnivals being less than what we hoped, then so be it.

Get ready for a Group 1 splurge from the powerhouse Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin barn.

Banglez’s Group 1 victory at Kilmore on Saturday night, is set to kick-start a romp for Stewart and Tonkin with dozens of their best horses just weeks away from returning to the races for the plethora of Victorian major races for the rest of the season.

It starts tonight (Monday) when young pacing stars Ladies In Red and Major Moth return from long stints out with trials at Melton. Out To Play, Fourbigmen and About Time are others expected at the trials tonight.

Fast-forward another week and Stewart/Tonkin will unleash truckloads of its best young pacers at the Melton trials, headed by one of Australia’s most popular pacers, three-year-old filly Tough Tilly.

THE man who dominated trotting with megastars like Lyell Creek, Take A Moment, Vulcan and others thinks he’s found his next top-liner.

Tim Butt is confident French import Holzarte Vedaquais has the talent, but now it’s a matter of building the ringcraft to be a major player in Australia’s biggest trotting races.

Whether that happens in time for our biggest trotting races early next year remains to be seen.

WHEN Harness Racing Victoria moved the Victoria Cup to October four years ago I thought it was lunacy.

I was wrong.

The stars have still turned-up and all four winners in the October timeslot have been superstars: Lennytheshark (2017), Tiger Tara (2018), Bling It On (2019) and Lochinvar Art, who beat King Of Swing and others last year.

But this Pryde's EasiFeed Victoria Cup will be next level because it’s about so much more than just the Cup itself.

TOP WA trainer Greg Bond has his sights set on the new-look Victoria Cup Carnival.

Bond and wife Skye will use the next month or so to settle which of their stable stars will chase features like the Victoria Cup, Derby and Oaks as well as the mares’ features.

Heading the contenders are former WA Cup winner Mighty Conqueror, emerging star Minstrel, classy mare Wainui Creek and three-year-olds like Dont Bother Me None, Jett Star, Boorah and Newsy.

It was the carnival that had it all.

When Racing Queensland enhanced it’s winter carnival, adding a few new Group 1 features and bolstering stakemoney, it hoped to become a real destination event of Aussie harness.

It’s only taken one year and defied all the travel hassles of a pandemic to do so.

The chorus of praise from participants likened the TAB Constellations Carnival to the glory days of the Inter Dominion when participants and fans would gather from all parts of Australia for great racing and celebrate the sport.

WHAT a treat it has been watching Anthony Butt in action during the past few weeks in Queensland.

It is well-established he is a champion, but the way he has driven in the big races at Redcliffe and Albion Park during this stunningly successful Queensland Constellations Carnival has been something to behold.

His mix of aggression, poise and split-second decision making has been sublime. Then again, this is a guy who’s won seven A. G. Hunter Cups, 37 heats or finals of the Inter Dominion, three NZ Cups and countless other major races.

CRAN Dalgety is a class act.

The champion Kiwi horseman allowed himself a moment to digest KRUG’S fourth placing behind AMAZING DREAM in the inaugural Group 1 The Rising Sun, then quickly switched into celebration-mode.

This wasn’t about Krug, Dalgety or what might have been … it was Nathan Purdon’s moment and Dalgety wanted it to be special. The pair go way back.

“Nath and I are close, he’s like a brother. We’re staying up here together and it’s great to be kicking around with him again,” Dalgety said. “He’s worked for me on three different occasions and we were even in a training partnership back home (NZ) for a while.

DAVID Brick is entitled to take some time to himself this week to savour the huge success his brainchild, The Rising Sun, is even before it is run for the first time.

Simply, it’s the best “new” race harness racing has seen since the Miracle Mile was first run and won by Kiwi mare ROBIN DUNDEE way back in 1967.

It’s an inspired concept, especially the three-year-old wildcard factor and preferential draw element. The proof is in the pudding with the chatter leading into the race and how strong the field will be.

THERE’S a bit of a Cox Plate feel to this new race, The Rising Sun.

The interest around what, if any three-year-olds will run in the Cox Plate, is always a huge talking point and the quirk factor of having two 3YO wildcards spots in The Rising Sun – largely a race for four-year-old pacers – has given it a whole new dimension.

Young Kiwi sensation KRUG showed he will add so much to the race, especially the way he so impressively won the Redcliffe Derby last Saturday night. You can go much better than he did, doing a power of work and slicing 0.8sec off the all-aged track record.

WA pacing sensation SHOCKWAVE is just what the Victoria Cup needs.

After 18 months of limited interstate and Kiwi raids because of COVID-19, having a serious new buzz horse come across and take on the best from the eastern states in a serious Group 1 feature will be a real treat.

Shockwave has it all and he’s poised to dominate his own patch judging by last Friday’s stellar comeback win, but is he more than just a big fish in a little pond? Time will tell.