The Carnival Of Cups kicks off for the season at Eugowra next week with the running of the Canola Cup Final. It is a NON TAB meeting that is held on the Monday of the long weekend and has a history of producing some future well performed horses. I find it one of the most enjoyable Carnival Of Cup meetings of the year and one of the reasons for this is the size of the crowd that the meeting attracts.

Three years ago Mark McNamara and I went to Eugowra for the first time and the crowd was around 1500 people, the sun was out and it was like a summer's day. The country atmosphere is very inviting and the locals go out of their way to make you feel welcome and ensure you have a good day. If you have nothing planned for the weekend and you are looking for some harness action then get in the car and head out to Eugowra and experience what country harness racing is all about.

If you were watching Sky Racing's coverage of Harold Park on Friday night or watched In the Gig on Sunday night you would know that I think horses like Pyro Torque should be kept to provincial tracks. We replayed Friday night's mares' race and to see a horse dropping out at the 500 metres on a metropolitan track isn't a good advertisement for the sport. It wasn't as if Pyro Torque had an off night, she has had plenty of chances in the past, 47 of them in fact and has never placed. She has struggled in plenty of C0's so it was no surprise to see her beaten so far in a metro event.

With Pyro Torque in the field it allowed the club to have each way betting on the race and there is no doubt that helps turnover but for the people who don't follow the form and were sitting in a club or pub and threw the mare into trifectas and first fours had no chance. Three pegs at Harold Park can be a good spot to be but no driver was brave enough to take the spot behind Pyro Torque.

With the change to the handicapping rules and no penalty for out of class racing we are going to see lower graded horses race at the metropolitan tracks around Australia. Darren Binskin produced The Wild Storm as a C4 on Friday and won the first M0 of the evening. The new rules are there to help horses like The Wild Storm. Maybe there should be a minimum class that allows a horse to participate on a Friday night? Horses should be a C2 before they are entitled to compete at Harold Park. That would weed out the very weak horses and prevent the problem we saw on Friday.

What about the class on the tracks around Australia? It all started with Blacks A Fake returning to the track last Tuesday and he blitzed his rivals to win as comfortably as I can remember. In the past he hasn't won as easily in the same company and he looks set for a big campaign. Unfortunately for the harness enthusiast, the day is coming soon when we won't have Blacks A Fake, Be Good Johnny and Karloo Mick to admire. They are all in the twilight of their careers but it's good to see the three time Inter Dominion winner still relishing his racing and keen to put his rivals to the sword.

Smoken Up and Melpark Major clashed on Friday night at Tabcorp Park Melton and it was another victory for the Lance Justice trained gelding. Justice was quick to get on the phone after the win and tell me that Smoken Up still has 20 kilograms to strip off before he is at his peak. There is no doubt that Melpark Major will improve with the run and I didn't think Amy and Alan Tubbs would have wanted to get into a war so early in his campaign. He only got serious once they turned for home.

Lombo Pocked Watch was back at the races the same week as his first foals hit the ground. In fact his first foal was a grey filly out of the top race mare Lombo La Fe Fe. The grey bullet took on a nice free for all field and finished second to Cant Bluff Me. Cant Bluff Me got the perfect run in the race, he sat on his stable mate's back and Jimmy Douglass was able to drive the horse as he liked. The final 400 metres was very fast and it made it near impossible for Lombo Pocket Watch to run down the winner. Cant Bluff Me now heads to the Queensland Pacing Championship for a crack at the Grand Circuit and will take on Blacks A Fake while Lombo Pocket Watch will head north to compete in the Gold Coast Cup this week.

Iron Hudge was the disappointment in the race. He led and while he was kept honest by Jackson Grant he was entitled to do more in the run home than he did. Mark Rolfe will take the horse to the uni early in the week to make sure there is nothing majorly wrong. When I spoke to Rolfe he was reconsidering a trip to Queensland and didn't want to be travelling after such a poor performance on Friday. I wonder how much the run took out of him a week ago when he finished second? Rolfe has made it quite clear that the horse would need three or four runs before he peaked and his second up effort might have taken a little bit more out of the tank than we all thought.

So the highlights this week will be the Gold Coast Cup and the Canola Cup at Eugowra. I can't wait! It will be another big weekend and with the rugby league grand final on as well there is plenty to look forward to. Catch you next week.