Racing: De Lovely could be too classy

De Lovely will be seeking to add the Australian Oaks to the Harness Jewels she won at Cambridge. Photo / Christine Cornege

De Lovely's two most favoured rivals could become her greatest allies in tonight's A$75,000 Australian Oaks.

The champion New Zealand pacing filly makes her Australian debut in Melton, Victoria, and faces a second-line draw in the 2240m event.

While that draw doesn't sound great, any disadvantage could be negated by the fact that the two leading Australian hopes in the race, Millwood Meg and Rocknrolla, have also drawn the second line.

Driver David Butcher says that could mean his key rivals inadvertently aid his cause.

Butcher, New Zealand's most successful driver in Australia in the past five years, believes De Lovely is one of the fastest horses he has driven, even rating her sprint alongside that of explosive stablemate Tintin In America.

So while he asked De Lovely to lead all the way when she won the Harness Jewels in record time last month, he is just as happy for her to follow the speed tonight, providing the tempo is competitive.

Which is where Millwood Meg and Rocknrolla come into play.

Both are hard-running fillies who don't have De Lovely's speed so they could be forced to move early and put some pressure into the race.

"That would suit me fine," said Butcher.

"My filly is very fast and has also strengthened up so if they want to make it a hard race that will suit us just fine.

"I'd rather have them back there with me on the second line than have them drawn to lead and get an easy time so we had to do all the work."

De Lovely flew to Melbourne on Wednesday night so has had the luxury of preparing for the Oaks in her own surrounds.

As long as she travels well she may simply have too much class for the Australian fillies, who are big on courage but maybe don't possess De Lovely's x-factor.

New Zealand harness racing fans may be stunned to see Millwood Meg, who won five from 16 in this country but finished five lengths behind De Lovely the only time they met, rated a potential champion in Australia.

She has improved lengths since moving to Western Australia but that is not uncommon with former Kiwi pacers heading across the Nullarbor, with seemingly no rhyme or reason to which New Zealand pacers thrive or don't in the microclimatic Western Australia environment.

But for all her stunning recent form, Millwood Meg still doesn't exude the class of De Lovely.

Butcher is not getting carried away, knowing there are still a few hurdles for De Lovely to clear before she lays claims to being Australasia's best filly.

This time last season, De Lovely's all-conquering stablemate Lauraella started her Australian campaign as favourite to win everything she was in but illness struck and she never got the chance to show her best, returning home winless.

"It can happen to any horse you travel with but it is slightly different because Lauraella had had a very long season, whereas De Lovely feels right at the top of her game."

Rocknrolla and Torque In Motion, the latter having chased home Millwood Meg in her past two Oaks wins, look the only other hopes.

By heading to Melbourne tonight Butcher forgoes the drive on All Tiger in the feature race at Alexandra Park tonight and he expects it could be a winning one.

The speedster flew home for third in his comeback race two weeks ago and meets a similar field off level marks, rather than giving them up to 30m start as he did last time.

"He went good and will be hard to beat this week because he is a class horse and the mobile helps," said Butcher, whose brother Philip takes the reins.

While rivals like Flem N Em, Caroline's Cullen and Dash have all been in good form recently, none have All Tiger's class and with the small field meaning he shouldn't get too far off the leaders, he looks the bet of the night.