Racing: Aussie - it doesn't look good

The man responsible for flying the Australian flag at the Interdominions tonight says it may not soar very high.

Victorian horseman Lance Justice will partner millionaire pacer Sokyola, and the pair are the only Australians favoured to break the local stranglehold on the series.

Sokyola was the only Australian heat winner on the first night of the $1.7 million Alexandra Park carnival and looks like the raiders' best chance of defending the Interdom title.

But Justice says the army of Australians in town for the meeting may not have much to cheer about.

Sokyola has drawn a tricky barrier on the inside of the front line, raising the possibility he will get trapped away on the markers and struggle to get a crack at his Kiwi rivals over the sprint distance.

This means even though he is a dual Miracle Mile winner, Sokyola will need the unexpected to win.

"It doesn't look good for us," admitted Justice. "I still think Soky can win the final [on March 18] but this race will be very, very hard to crack."

Tonight's second round of five heats are all over 1700m, meaning those horses who get back will struggle to make ground, let alone pass the leaders.

"But at least we got good points for winning on the first night so if he can't win this one we are still on track for the final."

That $750,000 final is already shaping as New Zealand's best chance of a home-soil Interdom victory since Mark Hanover led home a local trifecta at Alexandra Park in 1991.

With Elsu and Just An Excuse having thrashed the Australians in the first round of heats last Friday they now dominate betting on the Grand Final.

That leaves Justice feeling patriotically defiant.

"I know we have a big job in front of us because Elsu and Just An Excuse are great horses but I won't be taking a backward step to them.

"I can tell you one thing, we won't be making it easy for them ... we are not just representing ourselves, we are here representing Australia."

While Sokyola and Justice have plenty of numerical back-up, most of their fellow Australians have little chance of winning either the pacing grand final or the $250,000 trotting final, to be run the same night.

Trotters Sumthingaboutmaori and Sammy Do Good look like Australia's only other serious Grand Final winning hopes, with Flashing Red an outside chance in the pacing final.

The rest could be getting from our horses what we have been copping from their cricketers in the past month.

Bookmakers on both sides of the Tasman have deviated little from their long-held belief glamour boy Elsu will win the pacing final, with the South Auckland pacer as short as $1.90 in the latest pre-post markets.

The champion has drawn barrier two in tonight's final pacing heat and is expected to extend his winning sequence to five, so dominant has he become he is paying just $1.25 to win.