Kiwi pacing star Our Waikiki Beach has been handed a tricky start to his Breeders Crown defence.
The exceptional three-year-old confirmed his place as favourite for the ABC series with a dominant win at Melton last Saturday but his path to the final has been made more difficult by a bad draw in his semifinal at Bendigo on Saturday night.
Our Waikiki Beach, the winner of 21 of his 22 starts, will start from the inside of the second line in his 2150m semifinal.
While he follows out one of his key rivals in Iceenothink and the field is not strong, his early fate could now be in the hands of his rivals and may force trainer-driver Mark Purdon to pull back to near last as getting locked away on the markers would seem his biggest danger.
That could mean a harder night at the office than Purdon would have liked and while only bad luck would stop him from qualifying for the final on Sunday week, the other New Zealand-trained three-year-old in the series, Franco Cristiano, looks to have an easier path.