KEY POINTS:
If the well-fancied Nom Du Jeu wins today's $700,000 Mercedes Derby at Ellerslie, trainer Bjorn Baker will come up with a good hangover cure for himself in the morning - he's also a pharmacist.
Four months ago, the 30-year-old walked away from a lucrative pharmacy contract in Ireland
to return to New Zealand to train racehorses with his father, Nom Du Jeu's Cambridge trainer Murray Baker.
Winning New Zealand's biggest classic event on the country's premier racetrack this afternoon would validate that decision.
Bjorn Baker has some big ideas about what he wants to do with New Zealand horses on the world stage.
"The racing game is so international these days, which is why I spent every spare moment I could away from work to attend the major race meetings in France, Italy, Germany and the United States when I was in the Northern Hemisphere."
Baker spent a couple of years in London working for the German drug company Merck, and for a year before his return home was a practising pharmacist in Dublin.
"Dispensing drugs in Ireland is extremely profitable, many times more profitable than the same position in New Zealand."
Baker was enticed away from this career to train racehorses by the industry rejuvenation which has followed recent tax breaks given to New Zealand racing.
"New Zealand racing is on an upward spiral, and I felt that to make the break, it was now or never."
Bjorn Baker spent most of his childhood in Woodville where his father established his training career.
"Originally I was more attracted to the punting side of racing, but the interest in the horse has taken over."
Before he opened his Dublin pharmacy on Tuesday and Friday mornings, Baker would drive one hour south to the famous Curragh training ground to spend time with Irish trainer John Oxx.
"I didn't get paid by John, but I learned a lot.
"He had 120 horses, mainly owned by the Aga Khan, and I gleaned a lot about how he managed people and managed horses."
Baker says he will probably spend the New Zealand winter working alongside a leading trainer in the United States and take out a trainers licence when he returns home.
Nom Du Jeu has a big advantage today - unlike most of the leading Derby chances he likes wet ground, which today's forecast rain is threatening to provide.
But Bjorn Baker says he's been impressed by the way Nom Du Jeu has kept improving heading into today's big race.
"He's just flying. What beats him should win."
RACING CARNIVAL
* Today's $700,000 Mercedes Derby heralds the start of the three-day Auckland Racing Club carnival.
* Everyone is hoping the predicted rain stays away until after the meeting.
* The $700,000 Stella Artois Auckland Cup heads Wednesday's second day.
* Fashion, champagne and New Zealand's best racehorses underscore the carnival.
SWEEPSTAKE
Get your Auckland Cup sweepstake in Wednesday's Herald.
