KEY POINTS:
New Zealand is about to turn its back on harness racing's most famous series, the Interdominions.
The Herald understands a secret conference call today is expected to confirm the intention of the two New Zealand tracks which host the series, Auckland and Addington, to withdrawn their financial support for it.
Both are believed to be unhappy with the direction the series has taken and their lack of clout to do anything about it, even though they contribute as much as the Australian host clubs.
So they are likely to relinquish their rights to host the Interdominions, effectively seeing it disappear from the New Zealand racing landscape.
The move will shock racing traditionalists on both sides of the Tasman. The Interdominions have long been the most famous date on the Southern Hemisphere harness racing calendar and the only truly transtasman racing series of any racing code.
It started in 1936 and has been won by household names such as Cardigan Bay and Lyell Creek, last coming to New Zealand last year when local champion Elsu dominated the Auckland series.
The series rotates between six Australian states, Auckland and Christchurch, with clubs hosting every eight years.
But in the past decade it has lost some of its lustre through repeated date and structure changes as well as wildly varying Grand Final stakes.
Last season the pacing final was held for a record A$1.5 million ($1.7 million) in Tasmania, thanks to money from giant betting exchange Betfair, but this season it reverts to a mere A$500,000 in Adelaide.
This season best sums up the problems the series faces, with host state South Australia not having the money to hold the entire series, which will instead start in Melbourne on December 29 before all horses involved have to travel to Adelaide for the next round of heats five days later.
That farcical situation has outraged many leading trainers and many of harness racing's glamour horses are likely to bypass the series in favour of equally rich races under less stressful circumstances.
Harness racing officials at the Auckland Trotting Club and Metropolitan Trotting Club will not confirm their intention to pull out of the series, but the Herald understands it is almost set in concrete.
The only saviour would be if a working party set up by the Interdominion Council can suggest some radical changes to the series when it reports to the clubs in the next month. But that looks like being far too little too late.
Both clubs are unhappy with the level of representation they have at Interdominion council level, where they and Harness Racing New Zealand get two votes each.
Each Australian state gets four votes, meaning a harness racing minnow like South Australia has more say over the future of the Interdominions than serious players like Auckland and Christchurch.
Each club contributes $80,000 a year to the series, with HRNZ also paying $150,000, meaning the industry here could have more than $300,000 more to put into its own major races, the New Zealand Cup and Auckland Cup, if they pull out of the Interdoms.
One stumbling block for the clubs will be the funding agreement under which they pay that $80,000, which apparently runs until 2012.
The ATC, in particular, is also understood to be unhappy with a decision to hold next season's series in Melbourne so close to the Auckland Cup carnival in March, as well as being generally disappointed by the direction the series has taken.
While the move will not be popular with some trainers and racing fans, few could argue the Interdominions has lost its place as the premier harness race in Australasia, with New Zealand's best horses often not bothering to go because of the venue or series structure, which tends to favour Australian horses.
With harness racing stakes dramatically increasing in New Zealand after this year's tax relief, both the Auckland and New Zealand Cups look set to reach record stake levels in the next two years and will challenge the Interdominions for the title of Australasia's richest harness race.
There are also rumours of a huge money racing series in West Australia so it would not surprise to see the three biggest Australian states - Victoria, New South Wales and West Australia - share the series between themselves with Queensland another possible player.
Either way it will take a dramatic turnaround or some hectic last-minute negotiations for the Interdominions to be held on a New Zealand track in the foreseeable future.
* The new 2700m mobile format for the Auckland Trotting Cup has already struck gold.
The move away from the traditional 3200m standing start cup was announced only last week but already one of the ATC's key targets has been confirmed for the race.
Trainer Paul Kerr is now setting superstar 4-year-old Pay Me Christian for the March classic after being forced to withdraw him from next Friday's Gold Nugget in Perth because of travel problems.
"It is a shame to miss the Perth race but we are really excited about the Auckland Cup," said Kerr.
"It is a very smart move by the club and I think it will be the best race of the season."
