Racing: Blacks A Fake to stay at home

Blacks A Fake's on-again, off-again New Zealand campaign is in tatters.

Australia's richest-ever pacer is almost certain to be pulled out of the Interdominions today, just 48 hours after he was withdrawn from Friday's Trillian Trust Auckland Cup.

And that will effectively end any chance of the A$4.2 million earner ever racing in New Zealand.

Blacks A Fake was set for a surprise Auckland Cup and Interdominion campaign after bouncing back from recent heart problems but a new health threat has emerged.

He was below his best when finishing second to Be Good Johnny at Albion Park on Saturday night and a vet examination last night did not produce the results trainer Natalie Rasmussen was hoping for.

"We scoped him and his chest was inflamed, suggesting he has a virus," said the Queensland trainer.

"We had a blood test, too, and I'll get those results back tomorrow but if he has a chest virus I'll have to ease up on him and he simply won't be ready for the series.

"He won't be fit enough because he has to be there in two weeks."

Rasmussen said that if it was any normal Interdominion she might still bring Blacks A Fake to Alexandra Park for the series which begins on March 25. "But it is super strong this year and the way horses like Mr Feelgood and Themightyquinn are going we would need to be 110 per cent right to beat them and that looks like it isn't going to happen.

"So it is a real shame because his whole season was aimed at the Interdoms and I would have loved to have taken him to New Zealand.

"But I would say it is almost certain now we will stay home."

The only good news about Blacks A Fake's rollercoaster ride of late is it has had little effect on fixed odds markets, with the TAB having their Interdominion market suspended until Saturday.

While he is not coming, Australia's richest trotter Sundon's Gift has arrived in Auckland safe and sound chasing his third Interdominion title.

The $1.4 million earner will return to Alexandra Park, where he won last season's Rowe Cup, in a $30,000 mobile trot on Friday night, in which he has drawn barrier four.

That puts him outside Sovereignty in a race that also contains Sundon's Gift's stablemates Let Me Thru and Ima Gold Digger.

Many of New Zealand's best trotters have been allowed to miss the race, with I Can Doosit heading to the Interdominions fresh, while Stylish Monarch and Springbank Richard continued their preparations with a quinella at Rangiora on Sunday.