Racehorse TALK

Live barrier draw from 830am tomorrow- link at http://www.harness.org.au/news-article.cfm?news_id=17541

Race 8 PETSTOCK BALLARAT PACING CUP (GROUP 1) 10:00 PM 
M0 Or Better. * Manual Field Selection. * Field Limit of 12 starters plus 1 emergency. * This race is a leg of the Melton Saddlery Victorian Country Cup Championship and the Pacers Grand Circuit. * Acceptance Fee - $625. RBD. Prizemoney: $125,000 
2710 METRES

1 32142      PEMBROOK BENNY NZ     B Purdon               Barry Purdon   C13 M8  FR1
2 11132      HEZA TRICK NZ               G F Douglas           Daryl Douglas   C12 M3  FR2
3 21836      MELPARK MAJOR             A R Tubbs              Amy Tubbs   C22 M17  FR3
4 14578      HIGHVIEW TOMMY NZ     M Purdon              Mark Purdon   C10 M7  FR4
5 42148      OUR MALABAR NZ            L J Justice             Gavin Lang   C22 M14  FR5
6 85375      HESA BUZZIN                  I C Wilson             Jim Douglass   C16 M9  FR6
7 1s111      SUSHI SUSHI                  F Taiba                  Greg Sugars   C14 M1  FR7

 ---------- Second Row ---------- 

8 48s66      AMADMANCOMESUNDONE (Em 1)   C A Knowles Balarat 28/01/2012 Nathan Jack   C9 M1  SR-
9 46622      VILLAGEM                       L Miles                   Lisa Miles   C16 M6  SR1
10 21111     SMOKEN UP NZ              L J Justice             Greg Sugars   C49 M44  SR2
11 15621     DECORATED JASPER       P A Rowse            Jodi Quinlan   C17 M12  SR3
12 21337     CAPTAIN JOY                  S M Hunter                                  C12 M6  SR4
13 1s113     THE GOLD ACE NZ          S J Reid                 Peter Ferguson   C9 M2  SR5



No official word on which way Greg Sugars will go, but Lance has thrown in the Interdom drive into the bargain if Sugars chooses Smoken Up this week.

If Sugars gets off Sushi Sushi I doubt he would get the drive back!!!!

What a good race this will be.

Knowing Ballarat they will get a huge crowd and will be a great night.

There's no way Greg can get off Sushi now. If they are retiring him to stud at the end of the season maybe a different story but if they aren't he's got to stick with him.

Will be a pretty interesting race!

Woops he's a gelding it's a no brainer

Sugars sticking with Sushi -- http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=95291
There arent too many years that the Ballarat Cup lineup throws up a more interesting race than the Vic Cup- but fair dinkum, the draw makes this a corker. And thank christ the pen pushers have let it remain at the classic distance unlike the clowns at HRV.

What a great match up. Interested to see how good Sushi really is. I suspect he's the real deal

Melpark has drwan well to run the place

I think Sushi is the real deal but not yet ready to beat the old fella.

For everyone who wants to tell you Sushi got the best of the barriers compared to Smoken Up, I think its useful to remember that the owners of Smoken Up also own Our Malabar-he gets out pretty quickly too. So I reckon you can safely assume the instuctions to Lang could be:
1) lead at all costs early, otherwise;
2) stay in front of Sushi at all costs;
3) hand up only to Smoken Up if in front.

Add that to the likelihood that Barry Purdon, Darryl Douglas, & Amy Tubbs are also likely to want to try for/hold the lead early to land behind one of the big 2 later on, & I think the draw probably favours Smoken Up. If this is apparent to somebody that has an interest in harness, its obviously going to be clear as day to these guys, so it'll be extremely interesting to see what Greg Sugars & the Sushi camp decide to do- it would take balls of steel to decide to have a dash for the lead given its Sushi's GC debut, but dragging back makes it much harder to win also.

Should be interesting for sure ,  Im with Sushi , though I think he may hang a bit to see where they settle and doesnt risk getting suckered into a hole by Our Malabar then getting jammed in.

I think he's good enough to play it either way ,

Sushi has to be patiently driven and i  think its unders and should be around 7/2 not 2/1 im not saying he cant win but i cant see it as everything will have to go his way.

Why isn't Auckland Reactor in this race?

Always good to see a 100/1 pop win a feature 

How good was Sushi. He will dominate these horses over the next few years.