Harness Jewels racing: John Dunn set to drive hot favourites Highgrove and Five Wise Men

John Dunn winning the Anzac Cup in April. Photo / Trish Dunell

For John Dunn, the Harness Jewels could prove to be a day of ifs.

Technically, all racing could be about ifs but in Dunn's case his ifs, some of them as tiny as the word itself, could be the difference between driving a Group 1 treble and going home all but empty-handed.

Neither result would surprise.

Dunn is set to drive the hot favourites in the $100,000 trotting races for two and tree-year-olds and Highgrove and Five Wise Men are so good if they trot all the way and get even breaks they should win.

Both have drawn barrier seven, which is far less of an issue for Highgrove because not only can juvenile trotting races be discombobulated affairs but he has been so dominant over this crop when he has trotted all the way it may not matter what happens early.

If he powers up and stays down, he should win.

"I think he will behave," says Dunn.

"He wants to trot and last start when he galloped at Addington he had been a bit moody all week leading into the race.

"But he has been good this week and settled in well up here. If he behaves, which I think he wants to, he should be too good."

Five Wise Men has been too big, too strong for his three-year-old rivals, and drawn well on Sunday he would probably be so again but he has instead drawn wide on a super-fast front line and he may need luck around the first bend before Dunn has to launch him.

"But the draw is tricky because there is so much gate speed inside him. We couldn't be happier with him though," Dunn says of the star trained by his father-in-law Craig Edmonds and sister-in-law Aimee.

While the trotters only need even luck to win, Dunn starts the day likely to lead the four-year-old Diamond with Need You Now and then a different type of if comes into play because she can win but perhaps only if hot favourite Amazing Dream has a brutal run or encounters traffic problems.

"I think we will be in front and trying to roll along and that should make her [Amazing Dream] work hard," says Dunn.

"But we have tried that before against her and she has still beaten us. But our girl can win if the other one has a few things go wrong."

Before chasing Group 1 glory on Sunday, Dunn has a small but select book of drives at Alexandra Park on Friday with Chevron Art (R2, No2), Keisha (R4, No9), Woodstone (R5, No8) and Trixton Time (R7, No4) all winning hopes for the second leading driver on the premiership.

IRT Harness Jewels Day

What: Harness racing's second richest meeting of the season.

Where: Cambridge Raceway.

When: Sunday, first race 12.17pm.

How much: Nine Group 1 races over a mile for $100,000 each.

Who: The best two, three and four-year-olds pacers and trotters in NZ.

The punt: Fixed odds have been open for a week, all First4 guaranteed to $10,000 if struck, $50,000 terminating Pick6.