Victoria flexed its muscle last weekend and there is more to come.

Freakish filly Keayang Zahara set the tone when she toyed with her rivals yet again in the NZ Trotting Oaks at Addington last Friday night.

The Marg Lee-trained filly is unbeaten in 13 starts – six of them at Group 1 level – and should add a seventh in next Friday night’s $NZ200,000 NZ Trotting Derby.

If successful again this week, Keayang Zahara will have banked almost $700,000 in a career spanning just nine months.

More importantly, she is rapidly becoming THE most talked-about horse in the sport – and with good reason.

Still on NZ and don’t forget the Larajay juggernaut still has Just Believe, Better Eclipse (more on him later) and Hes From Heaven across the ditch racing and or preparing for major races in coming weeks, too.

While we still basked in the buzz of Keayang Zahara, the Victorians – horses and people – made an immediate impact on opening night of the NSW Inter Dominion series.

The star of the show was someone who’s done it all before, the great Chris Alford.

Already a winner of two Inter Dominion finals – on pacers Golden Reign (1995) and Lennytheshark (2015) – Alford looms as a major player again this year.

His best chance looks to be star trotting mare Queen Elida, who is looking to improve on third placings in the past two trotting finals behind Just Believe, who has bypassed this series.

Surprisingly, those two thirds with Queen Elida are Alford’s best results in 13 drives in Inter Dominion trotting finals.

Brent Lilley’s mare loves Menangle, looked back to “sharpest” best in the heat and is a deserved favourite.

But it was Alford’s drive to win the second of last Friday’s pacing heats at Newcastle which stole the show.

In a drive reminiscent of Blake Shinn’s ride on Antino in the Group 1 Toorak Handicap at Caulfield a month or so back, Alford’s caught his rivals napping with a blistering midrace move around the field to take the lead.

It was exciting, refreshing and sublime to watch.

“He can win it, he can win the final. He’s flying and versatile,” Alford said.

In the pacing heats, the luckless Dangerous (third in heat two) was another Victorian eye-catcher.

Victorians ran the trifecta in last year’s Brisbane Inter Dominion trotting final and will be a massive factor again.

As good as Queen Elida was, you could argue the injury-plagued Plymouth Chubb was just as good after doing a stack of work and finishing second to The Locomotive in the first heat. If he keeps building, he’s a huge hope.

Keayang Chucky also ran a solid third in that heat and the Lee clan insist he will improve after a draining trip up to Sydney in hot conditions, then the road trip to Newcastle.

Another hassle-plagued Victorian, Parisian Artiste, was no match for Queen Elida in their heat, but hit the line well for second and will appreciate longer races as the series goes on.

Check out the run of Aldebaran Vera in that heat, too. She’s on the rise.

To round it out, Victorians Emma Stewart and brothers Shaun and Jason McNaulty each won one of the Southern Cross finals at Globe Derby last Saturday night.

Stewart's improving filly Brighton easily won the 2YO fillies Southern Cross final and earned a crack at the NSW Oaks, while the McNaulty's Zenario caused a minor upset in the 2YO colts and geldings' final.

Just to ice the cake, Better Eclipse completed an "Aussie double" across in NZ for the weekend when he won yesterday's Methven "Green Mile".

As the name of the race suggests, the race was run on the grass track and underlined the versatility of Better Eclipse, who won the more traditional Group 1 Auckland Cup at Alexandra Park in May.

 

PHOTOS: Harness Racing New Zealand & Ajay from Race Images

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.