KEY POINTS:
Last time the Breeders Crown was held hardly anybody in this part of the world had given equine influenza a second thought.
When this year's series gets serious in Bendigo on Saturday night, the disease will be the biggest player in the transtasman shootout.
New Zealand pacers and trotters have enjoyed huge success in the mega-rich Australian series in the last five years, with Changeover the star of Breeders Crown day last season.
But just a few days later EI broke out, the borders were closed and now quarantine restrictions make the once easy trip incredibly complicated.
Which means when the semifinals of the series are held on Saturday, New Zealand's team will be about a third of the size it could have been.
Many of New Zealand's best young pacers have stayed home because to travel to Victoria may have meant they couldn't race here again until Christmas.
For a pacer like leading juvenile Tintin In America that would have meant missing the $200,000 Sires' Stakes at Addington in November and maybe the $220,000 Sales Series Pace at Alexandra Park on New Year's Eve.
So the question some trainers faced was do you take the one-off shot at huge money in Australia and miss the opening stages of our season or stay home and take it easy?
Most chose option two, although those who didn't could have pulled a masterstroke.
While New Zealand will only have five representatives this season, all are considered winning chances, three of them certain to be among the favourites for their series.
Muscle And Power will be top elect for the 2-year-old trotting series, the stake for which converts to almost twice the $100,000 event he won at the Harness Jewels in May.
He won't have to contest a semifinal on Saturday so goes straight into the final on Sunday week.
"He was worth taking because, being a 3-year-old trotter next season, there was nothing for him here before Christmas anyway," said co-trainer Graeme Rogerson. "So the quarantine restrictions won't bother him.
"But we also had Strike Up The Band [3-year-old pacer] ready to go and we decided to leave him at home because of the quarantine rules."
Three-year-old filly Lizzie Maguire is joint favourite for her series, while Tony Herlihy may have pulled the right rein with Ohoka Samson, New Zealand's sole colt in the juvenile pacing series.
Herlihy decided four months ago Ohoka Samson may struggle to beat mature juveniles like Highview Tommy at home so missed the local classics with a view to the Breeders Crown.
After two wins this winter he now has a shot at a A$301,000 ($385,000) final.
"He won't get to race for that sort of money again any time soon so I am happy to be taking him," said Herlihy, who won the same series in 2002 with Bella's Boy.
Ohoka Samson's credentials for the series match those of Helensville filly Twist N Shout, who hasn't been the best of her crop but is close enough to warrant a trip across the Tasman.
Good enough to finish second in the Jewels, she is a better horse now, says trainer Doug Gale.
"She has had a lot of respiratory problems over the winter but we are on top of those now and she has settled in well," said Gale from Melbourne yesterday.
The Kiwi team will be rounded out by 3-year-old trotter The Ultimate Galleon, but like Twist N Shout he meets a stronger Australian crop than usual.
The three New Zealand pacers need to finish in the first four in their semifinals on Saturday night to make their finals but both trotters are already through.
