Some harness fans will recall the 1200m harness races held at Alexandra Park six or seven years ago.
They were a novelty at best and - perhaps not helped by being run on the now-defunct Tuesday meetings - they never caught on.
Well, the Forbury Park club has persevered with these 1200m races since they were introduced in late 2013.
And, judging by the field for tonight's race, it's been well worth it. You could argue it is the toughest race of the night, with pace from both the inside and the outside of the mobile arm.
And that's not forgetting the dangers of Pulling The Strings and Melina Lowe on the second line.
There is a certain monotony to the American harness racing scene with the massive majority of races run over a mile, but this wide spread of distances across the New Zealand industry makes for interesting racing.
Chasing the dough
If you're having a bet at Forbury Park tonight, check out the fields at Alexandra Park for races 5 to 7.
There is a $50,000 Terminating Turbo Pick6 operating on Forbury Park races 6 to 8 and the three aforementioned Alexandra Park races.
The Forbury Park legs take in the tricky Forbury sprint series final, and the c3-c6 mobile pace (race 7) is not much easier.
Motown (Alexandra Park race 5) is probably your best hope of an anchor, despite drawing the second line in the preferential-barrier-draw system.
Turbo Terminating Pick6s will be a regular feature of Friday night harness and Saturday thoroughbred meetings during July, while Terminating Pick6s will be held on the Thursday night harness meeting throughout July as well.
Short straw for Ockers
Spare a thought for harness racing fans in Australia.
They have had to put up with quite simply substandard coverage of the Len Smith Mile from Menangle on Sunday.
The race started one minute late, but Sky Racing decided to run the premier aged harness race in Australasia for the month in a split screen with a rating 64 race from Coleraine which was running five - yes, five - minutes late.
Where's Coleraine, you might ask?
It's just south of Konongwootong, east of Casterton, and a long stone's throw to the west of Gritjurk in the Southern Grampians region of Victoria.
Naturally, Sky decided to stick with Coleraine's audio over Menangle.
Lazy Fiver
Hypervelocity won on Friday, although I copped some stick on Twitter for tipping a horse that went out paying less than $2.
Once again proof that I'm not cut out to be a bookie when it comes to pricing a horse two days out from the meeting (I picked the tip on Wednesday due to a busy Thursday).
Matthew Cameron might be able to get a vital win in the jockeys' premiership chase when he climbs aboard Ana in race 8 at Waverley today.
