What a pleasure it was to see Christen Me back at the races last week.
His trainer, Cran Dalgety, might have been hoping for, if not expecting, a solid but unspectacular tempo in Sunday's Rangiora Classic.
So much for that plan.
With the outstanding Locharburn in the race, the two of them went to war, equalling the national 2600m mobile pacing record set by Locharburn a month or so back.
Sure, Christen Me had the slightly easier run, but to see him finish off the way he did must warm the hearts of any harness racing fans wanting to see the best horses getting near their peak.
The Len Smith Mile at Menangle in late June could be an absolute cracker if the likes of Beautide, Arms Of An Angel and Lennytheshark turn up.
To the top
The thoroughbred review show Weigh In wrapped up its season on Sunday, and threw in some interesting debate about the annual awards.
Unlike the harness awards in which awards are handed out for each sex and gait in each age-grade, the thoroughbred awards are pretty cutthroat.
The only categories for active racehorses are the champion 2yr-old, 3yr-old, sprinter, middle-distance, stayer and jumper.
Heroic Valour is a likely favourite for the 2yr-old category, but the 3yr-old category has all sorts of options - Xtravagant, Rangipo, Sofia Rosa, Valley Girl and Tavago have all performed brilliantly on the biggest stages.
Good thing I'm not on the voting panel, as the 3yr-old category would produce a few sleepless nights.
Hopefully, Otago success will come from High Forty in the jumper category.
'Like' this
The graduation to social media is a slow-moving beast in the racing industry.
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for example are a big part of many people's lives - perhaps too big a part in some instances!We're slowly getting there in the Otago region.
White Robe Lodge has a good, informative Facebook page, detailing wins not only from the White Robe Lodge stable, but also victories further afield from the progeny of the stud's stallion roster.
A few other Facebook pages have cropped up but, by and large, stables around Otago are missing the opportunity for free promotion.
All it requires is five minutes updating your stable runners at an upcoming meeting and a photo or two from around the property, and people will start taking notice.
Across the Tasman, harness driver Danielle Hill (@danihillracing) is ''owning'' Twitter, with her comprehensive tweets before and after a race, summing up the chances of her drives then providing a debrief of the run.
Lazy Fiver
Risk almost lived up to his billing as an each-way hope at Alexandra Park, finishing fourth.
Rasa Lila suffers a 3kg upward swing from her third in the Easter Handicap, but this is a drop back from group 1 to group 2 company in the Travis Stakes (race 7) at Te Rapa tomorrow.
