Last week's Happy Valley feature race winner, Fruity Fruity, is comfortably clear in the race to be the Happy Valley Million Challenge winner for 2004-05 and, with only four race days left to the conclusion of the series, the pressure is on for many horses to make up the leeway.
Tonight, 25 horses that have already won points will contest four more races in the series to try to improve their positions as Fruity Fruity and the second highest point scorer, Taking The Lead, have the night off.
However, it is far from being a one or two-horse race for the winner's bonus of $650,000 and a number of horses are still within reach of the big pay-day.
Billet Express in race seven, along with Shabu Shabu and Tanahmerah in race four are still in contention and a victory tonight would see them within reach of the lead.
But punters should not be blinded by the high point scorers as shown last week, when Cheerful heart and Bear Dominance fought out the Class Three over 2,200 metres despite being further down the HVMC rankings.
After 13 rounds of the Challenge, David Ferraris is the leading trainer of the series with five wins, one second, two thirds and one fourth from 26 starters.
