The Great Southern Star format of a heat and a final has received generally good reviews after its inaugural running in Melbourne last week.
But it also got a few of the Dunedin locals talking at the Forbury Park trials on Monday, including John Collins whose razor-sharp memory recalled a horse named Toushay winning two races back-to-back at a meeting in the '40s or '50s for Leo Berkett.
. . . to another
Sure enough, the New Zealand Trotting Register of 1945-46 shows Toushay winning the third and fourth races at the Wanganui meeting on January 22, 1946. The margins did shorten from half a length to a neck between the two races, so perhaps Toushay was coming to the end of his run by the end of his second race for the day, which was over two miles. They don't make 'em' like they used to . . .
The magic of Dubai
If you're up early on Sunday morning looking for those elusive Easter eggs, tune into TAB TV on Sky Channel 35 at 5.40am to watch our own Ocean Park tackle the world's best in the group 1 Dubai Duty Free over 1800m at the magnificent Meydan racecourse in Dubai. In terms of racecourse bucket lists, Meydan is near the top of my list, along with Sha Tin in Hong Kong, the Meadowlands in New Jersey, Royal Ascot and Solvalla in Sweden. To make it to all of those places may require winning a Pick 6 or two. Or three.
Pitman power
It was remiss of me not to mention Brittany Pitman's three winners in the saddle at Wingatui last Thursday. She has now collected 15 wins this season, and is well on the way to making this her best season yet with four months still to go. She had 22 winners in the 2011-12 season. The three horses she won on - Remembrance ($23.90), Gervasio ($7.20) and Likeitlikethat ($11.90) - paid remarkable money for runners trained by Michael Pitman.
Lazy fiver
The curse of the midfield finish came back with a vengeance last week as Irish Bay ran fifth at Riccarton. Appropriately enough for Easter, I like the look of Oncewerechristians in race four at Hawera on Saturday morning. Zac Butcher drives and he should be able to overcome the wide draw with the son of Christian Cullen for his first win after 19 starts.
