It's the moment not many of you have been waiting for. The day when racing reporter Matt Smith stares into the crystal ball, manipulates the tea leaves, jumps into the DeLorean, or simply throws a dart at the board to figure out what will happen in the next 12 months in racing. Here goes.
THE SURE THINGS
Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen will win at least 12 group 1 races in New Zealand.
Northern hemisphere-bred horses will win at least two group 1 races in Melbourne during the spring.
Absolut Excelencia - the second part at least - will continue to be a battle for some judges and commentators to pronounce.
Brad Williamson will be the top junior driver in Otago. If he isn't, he will be very quiet on the trips to race meetings the following season.
My prediction last season of Dream Collector winning a feature race can carry over into this season. It may require Dyna Vickers to miss a feature race or two, but ...
EACH WAY
Matthew Williamson will lord it over his elder brother Nathan after pipping him in the drivers' premiershipThen again, Nathan will once again make the top 10 trainers' list, showing he's more than, ahem, a one-trick pony.
Graeme Anderson's strike rate will top .4000 for the third straight year.
Otago-based thoroughbred trainers will win at least five group or listed races in this term.
He's off to a good start already, but Jake Lowry will better his 23 wins last season.
One of the northern hemisphere-bred winners in Melbourne will be from Japan and will be successful in the Caulfield Cup or Melbourne Cup.
Alley Way will place (or maybe even better) in the Dominion at Addington in November.
Kawi will win one of the Triple Crown races at Hastings in the spring.
A North Island-trained horse will win one leg of the southern guineas series (Gore, Dunedin, Southland).
James McDonald will ride a group winner outside of Australasia.
RANK OUTSIDERS
Dalwhinnie will win or place in a black-type staying race this season.
Te Kawau will win a group race in what will be the biggest result for Central Districts harness racing since Braig was winning group races in the trotting ranks eight years ago (and definitely bigger than the time Tallulah Bromac, a pacer I had a share in, ran 7th and 9th over a two-day meeting at Manawatu in 2010).
Despite there being no Themightyquinn in this year's Interdominions, a West Australian horse will at least place in the final in Perth. Doubt it? Cast your mind back to 2012, when the first three home were Gloucester Park regulars.
The Lazy Fiver will have a strike rate of better than 50%.
