Racing: All Stars stable casts net far and wide

Co-trainer Natalie Rasmussen will bring many of the stars of New Zealand Cup week to Alexandra Park tonight. Photo / Stuart McCormick

The biggest certainty of the huge transtasman harness racing night ahead is that the All Stars stable will taste feature race success.

But picking which of the seven major races they contest that will come in is the tricky part for punters.

Co-trainer Natalie Rasmussen will bring many of the stars of New Zealand Cup week to Alexandra Park tonight when they not only have favourites in the age group features and the first northern juvenile pace, but New Zealand Cup placegetter Titan Banner in the Summer Cup.

Not long after Alexandra Park stops the fun begins in Perth, where partner Mark Purdon has Smolda in the Inter Dominion Final alongside fellow Kiwi rep Franco Nelson, while the All Stars have Piccadilly Princess and Mr Mojito as favourites in group ones there.

Complicating matter for punters though are a series of poor draws, with Piccadilly Princess in her A$125,000 mares' race the only other of the stable's big names to draw good marbles.

"She has the best draw and has worked on well so she is the best of our chances over here," said Purdon from Perth. "Smolda is going good enough but not as well as when he won the Hunter Cup earlier this year and on this track I think our best chance is if they go very hard and come back to us.

"And Mr Mojito has a tricky draw. I'll go forward on him and think he can still win but he might need to be a few lengths better than them so he faces a big task."

At Alexandra Park, the super stable has had a horror run with draws, some because of the conditions of their races, which means they are also going to need to be clearly superior to their rivals to win.

Titan Banner is one of the few not to draw wide but has the inside of the second line in the 2200m mobile Summer Cup, which has drawn a wonderfully even field. Any one of Christen Me, Tiger Tara, Hughie Green or even Locharburn could also win depending on the run they can secure, with a sub 2:40 looking on the cards.

"We are really happy with how Titan Banner has trained on and think he has a great chance, but he is going to need luck, too," said Rasmussen.

Also drawn poorly is Auckland Cup favourite Dream About Me in the mares' race but after overcoming something similar to win an open class at the Cup carnival she should still be too good for Rocker Band.

Sires' Stakes Final quinella mates Ultimate Machete and More The Better will dominate betting on the 3-year-old race but Rasmussen warns the result is not as clearcut as the former's national record victory at Addington would suggest.

"I thought More The Better was just as good as Ultimate Machete in the final and he has the Alexandra Park experience behind him so he might just be the better chance," she says.

Spanish Armada returned with a sharp win at Addington last start but draws outside arch rival Delightful Memphis tonight and Rasmussen admits if the latter is able to secure the lead Spanish Armada will struggle to beat her in the fillies' clash.

Tonight's meeting also sees the All Stars roll out their first juveniles and while they will attract plenty of money there are no certainties.

"Ideally we would have liked to trial them once up here but the club needed the numbers to get this race off the ground so we put them in.

"Sure they can win but they are not screwed down yet, with Spankem the more advanced at this stage."

Lennytheshark out

• Defending champion Lennytheshark has lost his battle to be ready for the Inter Dominion final.

• The third favourite was withdrawn from the great race in Perth yesterday lunchtime.

• This has allowed former New Zealand pacer The Bucket List into the race.