Racing: TAB gambles against Sokyola victory

The New Zealand TAB is making a lone stand against Sokyola in tomorrow's Miracle Mile.

The defending champion is still rated a $3 chance with the bookmakers in Wellington, clearly the best odds anywhere in the world for the Victorian pacer.

Sokyola has drawn barrier one in tomorrow's group one sprint in Sydney and looks the only Australian chance of fending off the three-pronged New Zealand assault of Elsu, Roman Gladiator and Mister D G.

With Elsu being harness racing's hype horse he opened at $2 in Australia after drawing barrier four, while Sokyola was at $3.25 even after drawing the ace, from where he is expected to lead.

But an avalanche of money all over Australia has seen Sokyola cave into as tight as $2.50 with some leading Australian bookmakers, with Elsu getting out to $2.40.

Even betting exchange Betfair, which is where many punters go to find the best value, was offering no better than $2.94 for Sokyola last night.

Which means the New Zealand TAB is leaving themselves vulnerable to be hit with a huge amount of money for Sokyola, some even from rival bookmakers.

"We are aware of where the other markets stand but we have made our minds up," said TAB racing bookmaker Paul Lally.

"We know how good Elsu is so we have him a bit tighter than the overseas guys and to give the punters a fair crack we have to have something else longer and that is Sokyola.

"We all saw him win this race last season but we think he is beatable even from the draw so we will take our chances."

Lally also had good news for punters at Alexandra Park for the major nights of the Auckland Cup carnival next month.

After a successful New Zealand Cup carnival at Addington the bookmakers will operate on every race at Alexandra Park on December 17 and 31.

"We were small-time winners at the New Zealand Cup meeting but we were lucky horses like Elsu and Marika lost key races otherwise we would have been in trouble.

"We know we are going to take a hiding from them one night but we would also like to have a presence at the big meetings coming up at Alexandra Park next month and during the Interdominions."