KEY POINTS:
Horses, dogs, high fashion and hopeless wagers, Cup Week has it all. Racing editor Michael Guerin looks at the biggest names in the equine calendar's busiest spell.
1: Sam Spratt
Don't let racing's sweetheart fool you.
While Spratt has won the hearts of punters in recent years she is one tough little lady.
Spratt was nearly killed in a racing accident at Trentham five years ago but not only fought her way back to the saddle, she is now giving the male jockeys a hiding.
She won New Zealand's richest spring race, the $1 million Telegraph in January and leads the jockey's premiership.
Spratt is a wonderful judge of pace on front-running horses but has earned the respect of trainers throughout the country with consistently outstanding days at the track.
And she is also a poster girl for racing's "yummy mummy" club, bringing up a son, Cody.
Hence, when she returns to scale after a win on big race days at Ellerslie, the Wiggles song, Big Red Car, is played on the PA.
Her key Cup week rides include Puttanesca (Derby), Vickezzchardonnay (Cup) and Gallions Reach (weight-for-age).
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2: Auckland Reactor
Racing's answer to Dan Carter.
They are both Cantabrians (sadly), both freakishly good, both draw the crowds and both could be a little bit bigger than New Zealand.
Auckland Reactor will go into next Friday's $600,000 Auckland Trotting Cup having won 19 of 20 starts and terribly unlucky in the other.
He has re-written the record books on the track and off, with a stunning $3.6 million being paid for him by a North American syndicate last year.
The four-year-old is rated a $1.50 chance to win the Cup and, if he does, will start a red hot favourite in the Interdominions on the Gold Coast next month.
Next year, he will turn his back on New Zealand to take on the world's best for big money in the Northern Hemisphere ... sound familiar?
Hopefully, he won't hurt his Achilles because, unlike Dan, he doesn't have a underwear modelling career to fall back on.
Then again, once he retires to stud he could earn about $10,000 per sex romp. Auckland Reactor that is, not Dan.
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3: Prize Lady
If horses were humans, Prize Lady wouldn't win the Fashion In The Field.
But if she wins the Auckland Cup on Wednesday she will be the story of Cup week.
The Te Awamutu-trained mare is aiming for an unprecedented third-straight Cup at Ellerslie. That would mirror Makybe Diva's performance of a mare winning three Melbourne Cups a few years ago.
Prize Lady is small, isn't overly fast and hardly ever wins. But she has a huge heart and any rain before Wednesday would help.
Warning: If she does pull off the miracle watch out for headlines saying: "Three times a Lady."
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4: Roger James
The Cambridge trainer used to be a banker. Maybe he knew something about the financial sector the rest of us didn't because he got out to become a horse trainer.
Or, more specifically, that should be a genius Derby trainer. James has won four New Zealand derbies, which is a bit like winning the Ranfurly Shield four times. Tomorrow, he has a great chance to make it five, with favourites Jungle Boots and Easy Rider.
You could imagine James striding the gallops at Newmarket training horses for the Queen. Instead, he will have to settle for being the King of the Derby - (refer bad headline puns at bottom of No 3).
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5: Fashion in the Field
It has a lot of fancy names these days - it is called Prix De Fashion this week - but to most people fashion at the races means one of two things.
For guys it is a chance to legitimately stare at hot-looking women. For women it is a chance to criticise other women before telling them they look hot. Raceday fashion has become a huge industry, particularly in a country where some people still wear their Warriors jerseys - you know the old ones with "DB Bitter" on the back - to the pub.
While there will be enough Jimmy Choo shoes and expensive handbags for an episode of Sex And The City, the difference is that raceday fashion is all about the headwear.
Traditional hats are still cool but the really chic now wear fascinators, mini-fascinators and turban fascinators, which were huge at the glam Melbourne Cup week. OK, I stole that last bit out of a press release, but you get the idea!
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6: James McDonald
Can you remember what you used to do at the races when you were 16?
Maybe sneaking a fag behind the grandstand? Trying to avoid the local cop when getting somebody else to buy you a beer?
James McDonald won't be sneaking anything or hiding from anybody. He will be front and centre in the biggest show of all at Ellerslie. McDonald may still be young enough to be at school but he has arrived on the New Zealand racing scene like a hurricane. In just his second season of riding he is already our leading apprentice and regularly rides two or three winners on major racedays.
He will partner Le Baron in tomorrow's Derby where victory would cap a remarkable rise from obscurity.
Here is a tip though: if you are going to back one of his mounts during the week try not to look at McDonald too closely beforehand because it might knock your confidence - he looks like he's 12.
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7: Changeover, the equine headline
Changeover may not be the best horse in the country (he is actually the second best) but he is the most written about.
In the past two years, the South Auckland pacer has constantly been at the centre of controversy.
Small things like losing the Sires' Stakes Final because of caffeine in his system; a notorious "team driving" incident in another rich race at Alexandra Park; smashing the world record winning the New Zealand Cup, then a string of yo-yo performances over the Australian summer.
He has 50 owners who are living a dream after buying into him for small change four years ago and an army of detractors who don't like his trainer, Geoff Small, after his two-year legal battle with harness-racing bosses over a series of charges.
Yet Changeover is a remarkable horse who has won countless great races and is the big danger to Auckland Reactor in next Friday's Auckland Cup at Alexandra Park.
Which, if he wins, will be just another reason for a whole lot of people to hate him.
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8: Puppy power
Going to the greyhounds used to be like watching club league.
You knew it existed; you might have even met somebody who went to it once - but there was no chance you were ever going to do it yourself.
But now the Manukau base of Auckland greyhound racing is far more mainstream.
It has a legitimate role to play in Cup week, with the Puppy Cup next Thursday night worth a staggering $120,000. Which makes it one of New Zealand's richest sporting events per second.
The code gets far more television coverage than it used to and the standard of dogs has improved immensely through imported Australian hounds in the last five years.
The facilities are good, it is a cheap night out and one of the few public places you can yell, "Run you bitch!" without getting arrested.
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9: Winston Peters
Officially the former minister of foreign affairs has nothing to do with racing, which after some of the bad publicity he copped probably isn't a bad thing.
But without a doubt he had a big influence in making Cup week the huge event it is now.
Before he lost at the polls, the New Zealand First leader was also the Minister for Racing. That saw him push through some unprecedented stakes increases to boost the international credibility of racing carnivals in the three major cities.
Among the winners was the $2.2 million stake for tomorrow's Telecom NZ Derby, now New Zealand's richest race. You won't see Peters making any of his famously gruff speeches during Cup week (well, not unless you are in the bar) but you get the feeling he won't have much trouble getting a free lunch at any race track in New Zealand for the next decade or so.
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10: Crisis, what crisis?
Nothing washes away the dread of a financial crisis like having $20 on the 10-1 chance in the last race when you are half-toasted. While the New Zealand dollar now equals roughly three Mexican pesos, racetracks are a fictional world where real financial rules cease to exist. Until the next morning.
Normally sane people who drive around for 10 minutes looking for a carpark to save $2 will shoot off hundreds of bucks on clothes, drinks and punting come the biggest racedays.
One comforting fact is that in "Raceland" the rules remain exactly the same as they have for two centuries: If you back a winner you win; if you back the loser, you lose.
And there is no chance the TAB will go into receivership before you get your money out.
The best ways to back a winner? Study the form (sometimes works), follow the Herald's expert tips (probably won't work) or back the prettiest horse (annoyingly seems to work for $1-each-way bettors).
