All the action is down south this weekend with the start of the three-day Canterbury Racing Club's winter carnival and Wairarapa has a sprinkling of horses contesting events.
The big race of the day tomorrow will be the Group 3 Winter Cup over 1600m that carries a stake of $100,000 with nearly $60,000 of that going to the winner.
Opaki trainer Roger Allen will be trying to snaffle that for his owners in the Yeah Right Syndicate who have paid up with Liv'n Paradise, a very handy mare that, unfortunately, has drawn out in the carpark at barrier 20.
Allen reports she has been working extremely well though and bounces out of the gates, so with regular rider Kelly Myers back on board Liv'n Paradise could get across promptly to compensate for the draw.
The Winter Cup is Liv'n Paradise's sole mission on the trip south and ideally she would be best suited to a dead or soft track.
She won on a heavy11 at Trentham in early June, although from all reports the track was probably rated worse than it actually was that day.
Liv'n Paradise has chalked up five career wins for a fraction over $62,000 and, all things being equal, seems set to add to that tally before long.
Allen will be taking stablemate Bazinger south also but may be lucky to get a start tomorrow.
Bazinger is third ballot in the last on the card, a rating 75 over 1250m and could line up on Wednesday instead.
Riccarton Park has for many decades been the natural home of jumpers and before this carnival ends we will have seen the running of yet another Grand National Hurdles, on Wednesday, and Grand National Steeplechase the following Saturday.
Tomorrow will see three jumping races contested with Tauherenikau-trained Eric the Viking taking part in the maiden steeples, the fourth race of the day.
Only a handful of runners will line up and Eric the Viking is the equal of any of his rivals.
Trainer Aaron Bidlake is confident of getting some of the stake and reports Eric - as he is known in the stable - is jumping out of his skin.
He did three circuits of the Tauherenikau track in training before heading south and pulled up in splendid order ready for the jumping task ahead of him.
English jumps jockey Charlie Studd again has the mount and is building a good relationship with the steeplechaser.
The only other Wairarapa runner will be Kalgoorlie Bomber who - with the launch of the new season - has ticked over to being a 12-year-old gelding.
Kalgoorlie Bomber, from Frank Stammers' stable at Tauherenikau, is no stranger to Riccarton having won there at this meeting last year at very good odds.
Should the veteran repeat that in race three tomorrow he is certain to again be at long odds as, to do so, he would have to get the better of much more favoured runners such as Vanilla and Pencuri.