Christmas comes early for harness fans with Wednesday night’s stellar Vicbred semi-finals meeting.

It’s an epic 12-race card – all Vicbred semis – at Melton.

It’s hard to pick one standout highlight, but a couple of the marquee races are:

RACE 9 – 3YO FILLIES 1ST SEMI

Our golden crop of three-year-old fillies were always going to headline this Vicbred series.

Yet again, the queen Ladies In Red faces a monstrous task from a horror draw. Sounds like a broken record, hey.

Surely star stablemate Joanna zips straight to the front from gate three, probably dictates and takes a power of beating.

Ladies In Red will need to do something extraordinary to overcome an outside back row draw, but if any filly can, it’s her.

RACE 8 – 3YO COLTS/GELDINGS 2ND SEMI

Beyond Delight gets the barrier draw advantage and probably finds the front, making him the one to beat.

Bondi Lockdown is gradually becoming the complete package and oozes talent. He’ll run a mighty race, but needs luck from inside the back row.

Yambukian is going places, but may be six months away from being complete enough to beat these boys. You can’t rule him out though.

And I’m a fan of Captain Bellasario, who has the draw to give a ton of cheek here.

RACE 6 – 4YO ENTIRES/GELDINGS 1ST SEMI

Logic says the untapped and potential superstar Honolua Bay will pounce on the lead and make it four wins from as many starts for Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin.

But Pacifico Dream is the defending Vicbred champ and looked terrific finding plenty he needed to win his heat last week. It’s just a shame he didn’t draw inside Honolua Bay.

Silent Major went supersonic in his heat, but drawing the outside (gate seven) is a nightmare.

RACE 7 4YO ENTIRES/GELDINGS 2ND SEMI

Jilliby Sylvester did as expected in his heat and looks a lovely horse in the making. He’s got the pole, will lead again and take plenty of beating.

But you can’t go much better than Jay OK did in his heat, making up a huge amount of ground and coming wide to do it behind Honolua Bay. He’s a very exciting horse.

Batman Barry will also get the dream trail behind Jilliby Sylvester and commands respect.

Something to remember before pressing the panic button after Copy That’s horror run in the Cranbourne Cup.

It was only back on June 6 when the Kiwi superstar ran a mystifying “howler” when only ninth in the Harness Jewels final. Since then he’s won the Group 1 NZ Cup, Group 1 Sunshine Sprint and finished second in the Group 1 Rising Sun.

This fella can bounce back and big time.

But trainer Ray Green has a challenge on his hands because Cranbourne wasn’t just a flop, it was unthinkable. Copy That was gone before the home bend and finished 20m behind the second-last horse.

Green is an experienced genius and will call on all his knowledge to solve the dilemma. He’s got a bit of time, but not a lot with races like the Ballarat Cup (January 22) and Hunter Cup (February 5) his major targets.

Copy That was to run in the Bendigo Cup on January 8, but that now hinges on what Green learns in coming days and how the superstar pacer recovers. He could wait a week later for the Shepparton Cup or even go straight into the Ballarat Cup a week after that.

Green’s resurrected him before and the sport, not just “Team Copy That”, hopes he can do it again.

What a shame we won’t see any of WA’s best pacers tackle the Hunter Cup.

Whether it’s WA premier Mark McGowan’s hard-line border stance or the surprising decision to push the $450,000 Group 1 WA Pacing Cup back a few weeks to February 4, the fact is none of WA’s stellar open-class crop will be at Melton on February 5.

While WA may not have the top couple of pacers in the land, there is no doubt it has by far the best open-class depth of any jurisdiction in Australasia.

Just look at a replay of last Friday’s 1730m Gloucester Park free-for-all won by Wildwest, but as notable for the beaten performances of stars like Minstrel, Magnificent Storm and Chicago Bull. They all went superbly.

You can also throw in the likes of Hurricane Harley, Mighty Conqueror and maybe even Major Martini for the big Fremantle/WA Cups double.

It’s going to make for some great late-night viewing for eastern states harness fans.

And, hopefully, the best two or three of them out of the Cups' double will head to NSW to chase the Miracle Mile in late February/early March.

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.