KEY POINTS:
Fancy backing Derby winner Gotta Go Cullen at $4.25 in a two-horse race?
You might get your chance to do that in 10 days time with the TAB set to take betting on a match race for the first time in decades.
The racing rarity could occur at
Cambridge on July 26 when champion pacer Changeover meets arch-rival Gotta Go Cullen in a heat of the Australasian Breeders Crown.
The pair are likely to be the only two acceptors in the race, with the winner guaranteed entry into the semi-finals of the rich series two weeks later.
The loser will have to head to Australia earlier to contest a reportage, providing plenty of motivation for the mini-race to be competitive.
While small Australasian Breeders Crown heats are not unusual because of the nature of the series, having the country's two best young pacers going head to head was too good an opportunity for racing bosses to miss.
So after pressure from Harness Racing New Zealand the TAB bookmakers are hoping to give punters the chance to bet on the event.
If, as looks likely, the pair are the only acceptors, the TAB will provide straight head-to-head betting on the race in the same format as a rugby or league match.
While the TAB could even have made the race a leg of Pick6, which would have lured punters in to the jackpot for the novelty value alone, that now looks unlikely.
"But if it is only the two of them we will be betting on it," said TAB harness bookmaker Steve Richardson.
"They are great horses and the interest will be huge so we would be happy to do it."
With a match-race being a battle of tactics almost as much as athletic ability the draw for the 2200m mobile will be crucial to the odds.
"But at this stage, without knowing the draws, it would be something like Changeover at $1.20 and Gotta Go Cullen at $4.20."
That will provide fans of Gotta Go Cullen a great chance to back him to win a race which he goes into fitter than his nemesis.
And with fixed odds betting often the target of $10,000 bets it wouldn't surprise to see one of Changeover's army of fans chance their arm.
While match racing between just two horses is uncommon these days harness racing history is steeped in the concept.
It was how the industry first got started in New Zealand in the late 1800s, with two horseman simply meeting on a back-country road and wagering on who could make it to the nearest landmark first.
A lot may have changed in harness racing since then but the basic question remains the same: Who is the fastest?
* New Zealand's booming standard bred breeding industry has received another huge boost.
The world's richest living racehorse Real Desire will join our stallion ranks next season, heading to Alabar in South Auckland.
The champion pacer will stand at Alabar in a shuttle arrangement with his North American owners.
"We are over the moon to get him because I think everybody realised what a great horse he was and what a sire he is," said stud manager Graeme Henley.
Anybody who saw Real Desire race knows he is right on the cutting edge of the harness racing breed.
A stunning horse, he was world champion at two, winning eight of 10 and pacing 1:50.8.
But at three he was freakish in his battles with arch-rival Bettors Delight, a battle that will continue in South Auckland next season as Bettors Delight will stand at Woodlands Stud.
Real Desire won the Meadowlands Pace, Breeders Crown, Oliver Wendall Holmes and Bluegrass Stakes, earning over $1.6 million and pacing 1:49 for a mile.
At four he kept the momentum up, winning 10 of 13, the Breeders Crown, Canadian Pacing Derby and US Pacing Championships, pacing a 1:48.2 mile and winning Horse of the Year.
He completed his race career with US$3.15 million ($3.5 million) stakes, making him the third richest pacer of all time.
He has reproduced that form in the breeding barn.
His first crop are 3-year-olds and are going through a golden time, with Tell All winning the US$1.5 million North American Cup.
Remarkably Real Desire will come into the NZ market at just $6000 plus GST, putting enormous pressure on those standing at higher fees.
