KEY POINTS:
As one door opens, another one slams cruelly closed for the Green-Hughes stable at Alexandra Park tonight.
The stable welcomes Palomine back to the races in tonight's feature event but may have lost the equally-talented Roddick to injury again.
The pacing pair have both spent large slices of
the last two years on the sidelines, although Roddick appeared to put that behind him with a comeback win at Cambridge two weeks ago.
But Roddick pulled up sore after a workout on Wednesday morning and has been scratched from his leg of Pick6 tonight, suggesting he will be sidelined for quite a while again.
That leaves trainers Brian Hughes and John Green hoping Palomine can fill the void this spring and Hughes says while that is possible, a winning return tonight may be more difficult.
Palomine hasn't raced since last November, when he looked a potential Cup horse before fracturing a sesamoid bone.
The injury has healed well and Palomine had plenty of ground work under his belt before he won in style at the Alexandra Park workouts last week.
Hughes says the only problem is the lack of a second public outing in the interim.
"I was happy with his win last week but I wanted to give him one more workout before he started racing," said Hughes.
"But being the type of horse he is, I didn't want to take him to Kumeu for the trials this week so we are going into this race a run short.
"I am not saying he can't win because he is a good horse but he is somewhere between 90 and 95 per cent fit and often at this level, against race-fit horses, that isn't enough."
Hughes rates Palomine a horse who could contest a feature race like the Franklin Cup this campaign but with his logical fitness concerns, the Geoff Small-trained pair of Zenad and All Tiger could be too slick for him tonight.
Both have showed enormous speed when winning in the last month and will be aided by the small field tonight, which should help them overcome their wide draws.
Consistent Zenad has a nomination for the $1.2 million New Zealand Cup and will be driven by Small's stable reinsman David Butcher, usually a good indication of which horse is rated the stable's best chance.
He has a potent record over 2200m and can either race forward or peel off a fast last 800m when saved for a run - either way, he has to be the horse to beat.
The lightly-raced All Tiger, impressive in winning at Cambridge last start, has been a huge improver over the winter and has finally got the brains to match his motor. With one run at the leaders he could upstage his stablemate.
Roddick's scratching from race nine, the fifth leg of Pick6, opens that event up for yet another comeback pacer in the Gareth Dixon-trained St Barts.
He was second to Palomine in his workout at Alexandra Park last week and is another who will take great improvement from his comeback race tonight.
But at his best St Barts is another who could work his way toward open class, with fitness his biggest concern tonight.
BIG RETURNS
* Palomine returns to racing at Alexandra Park tonight.
* But his trainers may have lost the services of Roddick, who has been scratched from tonight's meeting.
* Co-trainer Brian Hughes says Palomine will be just below peak fitness.
* St Barts is another high-profile pacer returning to racing in tonight's $100,000 Pick6.