The new year brings competition and conflict with overlapping stakes schedules
by Adam Hamilton
As 2025 draws to a close, Down Under fans won’t have to wait long for things to heat up again.
The new year is poised to start with a bang when the two most exciting open-class stars step out at the unlikely setting of Bendigo.
New pacing sensation Kingman (Always B Miki—Gotta Go Dali Queen—Dali) and trotting starlet Keayang Zahara are both locks for the meeting.
Kingman’s first appearance of 2026 will see him tackle the $75,000 Bendigo Cup, which has far more importance than its humble purse.
The Bendigo Cup is the first leg of a six-race Victorian Cups series which carries a potential $1 million bonus for any pacer who can win four of the six races, but it must include the $250,000 Hunter Cup on Feb. 14.
The other legs are the $50,000 Shepparton Gold Cup (Jan. 17), $100,000 Ballarat Cup (Jan. 24), $150,000 Cranbourne Cup (Jan. 31), and $150,000 Kilmore Cup (Feb. 7).
Kingman is now rivalling — some even say has overtaken — the great Leap To Fame for the top ranked open-class pacer Down Under after emphatically beating him at their past two clashes in the Victoria and New Zealand Cups.
Enhancing Kingman’s chances of snaring the bonus, he won’t have Leap To Fame (Bettors Delight—Lettucereason—Art Major) to contend with, at least in the early legs of the Victoria series.
“No, we’ve decided not to chase the bonus, so he won’t be down for the early races,” Leap To Fame’s owner Kevin Seymour revealed this week.
“He had almost two months away late this year and we’d prefer to minimize his travel, at least in the early part of next year.
“The plan is to go down late January and try to win the Cranbourne Cup for the third year in a row and run in the Hunter Cup, too.”
That sets up a potential ideal stage in the Hunter Cup if Kingman does his bit by winning at least three of the lead-up legs and has to beat Leap To Fame in the Hunter Cup to land the bonus.
While the challengers come at Leap To Fame, he continues to excel, easily winning last Saturday night’s Christmas Cup at Albion Park. It was his 60th career win (from just 77 starts) and he became the first Down Under pacer to top $5 million in prize money.
Keayang Zahara (Volstead—Keayang Yankee—Muscles Yankee), who has looked world class winning 20 of her 21 starts (including 10 at Group 1 level), will chase her own new Victorian bonus.
In tandem with the pacing bonus, there will be $500,000 on offer to any trotter who can win four of the six trotting legs, but they must include the $250,000 Great Southern Star on Hunter Cup night.
Keayang Zahara heads to Bendigo for the first leg, the $100,000 Maori Mile.
Bendigo, a former gold rush town about two hours north-west of Melbourne, will never have seen a night like it.
And it’s a fairytale way to launch the Summer of the Glory, the name for Victoria’s new six-week series.
New South Wales was the trend-setter with such bonuses last year when champion stayer Swayzee went within one placing of snaring $1 million for winning all five legs of the NSW Carnival of Cups. He won four, finished second in the others and banked a $500,000 bonus for connections.
Many thought that winning the five races, around varying tracks over a five-month period, was too daunting.
But just a year later and the much-improved Captains Knock (Captaintreacherous—Scarlett Finn—Art Major), part-owned by former Aussie Rugby League superstar Jarrod Croker, is in the box seat to do so.
Brad Hewitt’s rising 6-year-old has won the first two legs at Wagga and Newcastle and looks a standout for the third leg at Bathurst on Jan. 30. The last two legs are at Albury and Penrith in February/March.
To Hewitt’s frustration, his quest to win the NSW bonus will limit what role Captains Knock can play in Victoria’s major races.
“It’s annoying, very annoying that they clash,” he said. “I’ve already had to miss the [Group 1] Blacks A Fake in Brisbane because it clashed with the Newcastle leg of this series.
“There are not enough stars at open-class levels to split them up. The sport should be doing everything it can to bring them together, not make us have to choose where we go.
“This horse has gone to a whole new level and a race like the Hunter Cup would be ideal for him. It’s a race I’d love to try and win, but I can’t run because the Albury race is the night before the Hunter Cup.”
That need to choose will continue through until April and Down Under’s two major open-class slot races.
The first of them is the $1 million Race by betcha in Cambridge, NZ, on April 10.
Just seven days later is the $1.25 million Nullarbor in Perth.
The short gap between races and their locations means no horse will contest both races.
At this stage, Kingman, Leap To Fame, Captains Knock, Republican Party, The Janitor, and Merlin are the biggest open-class names bound for Cambridge.
Minstrel, winner of the past two Group 1 WA Pacing Cups, Magnificent Storm, and Don Hugo are the early headline names for the Nullarbor.
But there is so much more to look forward to in 2026.
The emergence of this season’s Kiwi 3-year-olds Got The Chocolates and Marketplace has been both exciting and crucial.
For so long the Kiwis dominated the major open-class races Down Under, but the tide has really turned through the likes of Leap To Fame, Swayzee, Don Hugo, and Kingman in recent years.
In Got The Chocolates (Art Major—Kate Black—Bettors Delight) and Marketplace (Bettors Delight—Cullen Who—Christian Cullen), the Kiwis have the two most exciting newcomers to the big league for 2026 and beyond.
Hopefully both make the first of what should be many trips to Australia for the Group 1 Chariots Of Fire at Menangle in March.
Then you would expect one or both to taste major open class racing for the first time in the Race by betcha.
Another horse who promises to excite in 2026 is this season’s top Aussie juvenile, Loucasso (Sweet Lou—Our Little Artist—Art Major), who finished his year with the most breathtaking of Breeders Crown wins at Melton last Saturday night.
He won by 25 meters and smashed the clock with a 1:52.2 mile rate for 2,240 meters.
It moved his driver Mark Pitt to say he’s not just the best juvenile he’s driven, but pushing towards being the best pacer… full stop.
While there are a string of obvious Derby targets next season, Loucasso’s owners are fixated on trying to win the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1 million TAB Eureka next September.
It would be history as no 3-year-old has won the race, which is restricted to 3- and 4-year-old Aussie-bred pacers, in its three-year history.
Bay Of Biscay ran second in 2024 before returning to win as a 4-year-old this year, while his stablemate Fox Dan ran second as a 3-year-old this year.
