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The highlight of southern hemisphere harness racing is the Inter Dominion Championship. Historically it has been a three-week series of heats and final, now after a set of regional heats, the grand finale is a final with a stunning support card. The shrewdest offshore harness punter, Ben Krahe, casts an eye over the whole day's programme. --------------- Preview of Super Sunday at Menangle Paceway 2 March 2014 by Ben Krahe - @benkrahe A great day's racing awaits us for what is dubbed Super Sunday, and rightly so to. Seven Group 1s will be held and three Group 2s – surely enough to wet any racing enthusiast’s appetite. The headline act – the Interdominion is still Australasia's biggest race and the winners are only the elite – four-time winner BLACKS A FAKE, three-time winners IM THEMIGHTYQUINN and OUR SIR VANCELOT, dual champions GAMMALITE, HONDO GRATTAN and CAPTAIN SANDY, and other champions such as WESTBURN GRANT, VILLAGE KID, SHAKAMAKER and the list goes on. Accompan...

On most feature race days, you'll have one or two lesser quality races programmed to fill the card. The owners mightn't win as much, but there's no reason punters can't take home as much they could on the highlight of the day. Making her debut on the blog is Colleen Goth, @colleengoth , with her look at the last race on the Rosehill card, always an important one if you're chasing, or still in the Quaddie, no matter what the standard (RM75). She's afraid to avoid the favourites, and if you think she is completely barmy going by her tip... the last blog debutant who tipped a horse at triple-figure odds was @calumswanlaw - and he landed it ! Welcome Colleen! ------------------------ Rosehill Gardens Race Handicap 2000m 1720 EST (0620 GMT) Good Evening Punters When Scott suggested that I “have a go” at giving you my thoughts on a race at Rosehill tomorrow I just had to choose the “have a go” last race, that final fling on the card that lets you go home a ...

As autumn kicks off in Australia, that means two things for Sydney - bring the washing in, it's raining; and the quality of racing is sharply improving. This year's Sydney carnival has been reinvigorated by the creation of The Championships - also known as "spending a shitload of money to attract largely the same horses". An early lead-up to the Derby is traditionally the Hobartville Stakes, and there's quite a handy field going around. Contrary to the standard for Sydney racing, there are even more than nine horses lining up (well, at least before final scratching time anyway...). Anyhow, enough of the piss-taking, it's time to welcome a new contributor to the blog, Andrew Capelin, a full-time betting analyst who focuses on Sydney and NSW Provincial racing. He provides markets to a select group of clients and will have a website available soon. For now, the bet place to find him is via Twitter, follow him @farlad . Welcome aboard Andrew! ------------------...

The 3yo feature of the Melbourne autumn/Festival of Racing/Relaxed Racing/ schedule is the Australian Guineas over the metric mile. As Manny says below, it's had a chequered run as to how prestigious the race turns out to be each year, but it is that all-important Group 1, and on paper, this is quite a decent field. Returning after his assessment and tip last week were spot on, is astute form analyst Manny Galouzis, @mannygalouzis . -------------------- Australian Guineas G'day punters! All eyes on Flemington this week as we are treated to another edition of the Group 1 Australian Guineas. I hope some of you followed me in at the 9/4 on Moment of Change last week; fingers crossed we can make it two in a row! But first, a little bit of history on the great race. Inaugurated in 1986, the Australian Guineas has been won by some decent horses over the years. That being said, in recent times, many of the winners have not gone on to do much else later in their careers. No Gu...

Ut's not often I have a preview for Sunday racing but Cheltenham caters for many different classes of race, and while the Foxhunter Chase mightn't be blue deemed as blue riband, it still goes down as a Festival winner! Kieran Kenneally, @kierankenneally chips in with the preview of this 3m2.5f Hunter Chase which will be a tough slog in the expected heavy going. --------------------------------- Foxhunter Trial - Fontwell 4.20 I've always looked at the Kempton meeting at the end of February as the last piece in the Cheltenham jigsaw puzzle, and it has thrown up many a winner over the years. Having said that and with some top class racing all over the world this weekend, it can sometimes pay to look at the smaller meetings for value or a smaller stables "Gold Cup!" The 4:20 at Fontwell on Sunday is one such race. Sally Duckett sends Radetsky March here for his second run of the season. His record for the last five years on his second run is Won 25/1, 2nd 28/1...

Getting this close to Cheltenham, we start to see the stars put into cotton wool and held back until the Festival. But a few weeks later, the attention moves to Aintree and this field is certainly more suited to the Grand National than the Champion Chase. This will be one very long slog in the heavy ground, regular contributor Jon da Silva, @creamontop returns with his unique style of analysis.... ------------------------------------- Newcastle's Eider Chase 4 miles 1F Going Heavy I worked in Newcastle for 14 weeks which in British Airways language was 14 Business Returns and 560 tier points. That is one week from becoming a Silver Card holder with 600 tier points. Put simply I almost had enough tier points to get a smile when I checked in. Not to mention to hear those words middle aged men dream of from attractive uniformed 20 somethings "would you like an upgrade, Sir". Sadly Tier points are like 80s stallion prospects and disappear just as their youthful pr...

The Blue Diamond Stakes - the first Group 1 of the season for the juveniles, a strong field and a contest made all the more intriguing by the barrier draw. As you'll see from the historical analysis provided earlier in the week , the last three favourites have won but five of the previous six winners started double-figure odds (in the decimal format). A G1 race calls for G1 analysis, so I've drafted in Racetrack Ralphy for his comprehensive assessment of the big race. Visit his site for regular expertise or follow him @rtralphy for form discussion and not-always-serious commentary about the Australian racing industry. -------------------------------- The Blue Diamond Stakes 1 Boomwaa Noel Callow • Robbie Laing (13) 57kg Has race experience, tactical speed and a 1200 run advantage over the opposition and that could take him a long way. Couldn't sustain a mid-race surge last week against the elite older Group 1 sprinters, and he could run a very bold race from...

As Melbourne racing hits its straps, Sydney is just getting warm in the lead-up to this year's big shebang, The Championships, with truckloads of cash on offer. One of the early features of the Sydney 'autumn' is the Apollo Stakes at Randwick and with the preview, returning after a long absence, is aspiring young writer Tom Stewart, @tstewcav26 . ------------------------ The Apollo Stakes Held under weight for age conditions, the Apollo Stakes is a Group Two event run over 1400m. It is traditionally a lead-up race for the chipping Norton stakes and also provides a platform for stayers resuming and heading towards the later autumn feature races. Lonhro and Sunline are a couple of star gallopers that have taken out this event in the past and this year will be no different with the likes of Boban and Appearance going around. #1 Boban (7) Nash Rawiller – Coming off a disappointing first up run there is no doubt that all eyes will be on Boban. Whether the distance wa...

The Futurity Stakes is a traditional feature of the Melbourne Autumn Carnival, this year promoted as '#RelaxedRacing' with later starting times in the warmer weather, and in some places, more relaxed dress codes. A quality field will go to post, considering the huge carrot Sydney has thrown out this year for its showpiece, The Championships. No longer restricted by a bookmaker, at least in the free speech sense, it's a welcome return to astute Aussie racing analyst Manny Galouzis. In his words "If you wouldn't mind, tell the readers to direct all praise/hate-mail/death threats to @mannygalouzis on Twitter haha!" . --------------------------- Caulfield Race 6 - Group 1 Futurity Stakes Greetings punters! What a fantastic day of racing we have this Saturday at Caulfield. Three Group 1s, all high quality fields and big prize money up for grabs. We kick things off with the first race of the quaddie, The Group 1 Futurity Stakes. Run over 1400 meters, this...

A tremendous weekend of racing ahead, spread around the globe, and headlined by the AUS$1m Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield. I'll have a full preview of the race available tomorrow, but to provide some background on the race, here's some historical analysis from the experts at Premium Punting . You can read more of their work via @ PremiumPunting . ----------------------------- Blue Diamond Historical Analysis In what looms as the most fascinating race of the Melbourne autumn carnival, the battle between top 2YOs Rubick and Earthquake will cause debate between racing fans. Although our early opinion is not yet decided, below is some historical analysis which could help identify which winning patterns could be correlated to one of the two undefeated horses. 17/31 winners ran in the preludes the fortnight before 11/30 of these won their prelude races 22/30 winners won their previous start 14/23 winners started from barriers 1-5 Below is a table of the last 15 ...

The great racing is underway again in Australia, last week we had the G1 Orr Stakes, this time it's the Lightning Stakes, the first leg of the Melbourne sprint triple crown, and the only WFA event amongst them. These days it's probably a better stepping stone towards heading to Royal Ascot than chasing the triple crown. Making his blog debut to preview this race is 'King' of @weekndkngracing . Follow him for more insight and advice on Aussie racing. -------------------- 2014 BLACK CAVIAR LIGHTNING STAKES 1-SHAMEXPRESS. 1st up. Class sprinter who excels down the straight course of Flemington, his home track. Proven Gr1 WFA performer. He won the Newmarket at this venue last Autumn defeating last weeks Gr1 winner Moment of Change in a red hot form race. Has never run a bad race at Flemington in 6 starts - bolted in by 4L on debut (1200m), 5th behind superstar All Too Hard (1400m), 3rd in the Gr1 Coolmore Stud (1200m), sixth behind the legend Black Caviar in thi...

The Inter Dominion has traditionally been the jewel of Australasian harness racing and its toughest test. More recently the format has changed from a three-week series of heats and finals at one venue to a spread of heats across the two countries and one premium final. Debate rages as to which format is better, but one things for certain, heats night with all the qualifying races conducted within 90 minutes across five different tracks makes this Saturday one hell of a night for harness racing fans! Analysing the fields between bottles of Singha is Aussie harness racing expert Ben Krahe. Follow him @benkrahe to read more of his wisdom on racedays. ------------------------------- Preview of the heats of ID14 This year’s edition of harness racing’s greatest prize – the Inter Dominion starts on Saturday with the running of six heats all in the space of 90 min around Australia and NZ. The final will consist of horses that qualify from Menangle, Melton, Albion Park, Gloucester Park ...

I don't usually post early previews of races, would rather wait until final fields are declared, but with not a lot on for National Hunt racing until Cheltenham now, and the weights being released... well, regular contributor Jon da Silva, @creamontop , felt like bashing the keyboard for a few hours to come up with this early look at the field. ------------------------------- The National Used to be easier than working for a living the National - look for back class and a weight of 10 stone to 10 stone 7lb - now sadly it requires work and luck. Race is run on a flat circuit of just shy of four miles four furlongs and comprises 30 fences. Slow horses even ones who on most tracks would be favoured by the distance can get a long way behind on even softish going. Class even back class important for me even if last year's winner was marginal. However once again I question why unsound old horses are entered notably a few owned by J P McManus entries and trained by Paul Nicholls ...