12 elite pacers are ready to fight it out for the prestigious title, including the Geoff Webster-trained champion Mister Zion.

Due to be driven by Luke McCarthy on Saturday, Mister Zion has drawn superbly in barrier one from where the promising pacer can make the most of his great gate speed.

Coming off three successive victories including his win in the Group 1 South Australian Pacing Cup last start, the in-form Red River Hanover gelding will be sure to play a big role in this race and is possibly Webster’s best chance of winning back-to-back Ballarat Cups.

Webster also has gifted four-year-old Tear It All Away engaged in the feature, starting from barrier five, and the defending Ballarat Cup champion Mister Swinger, who he will be driving in barrier 11.

The star studded field also comprises of the brilliant previous winner of the Hunter Cup and the Inter Dominion Mr Feelgood, and last start-winner Sammy Maguire.

The Gavin Lang-trained Sammy Maguire has been stunningly consistent and claimed an impressive victory in the Group 2 Bendigo Pacing Cup last Saturday ahead of Mr Feelgood.

The two will face off again in the Ballarat Cup, Mr Feelgood having the disadvantage of drawing wide with barrier 12 while five-year-old Sammy Maguire has drawn ideally in barrier three.

The most experienced pacer is the John McCarthy trained and driven Be Good Johnny, starting in barrier seven.

The Ballarat Cup, which is also the next leg in the Barastoc Grand Circuit, is scheduled as race seven on the night’s great nine-event card and is due to jump at 10:00pm (VIC time).

The other highlight harness events at the Ballarat meeting will be races three and six, the two semi-finals of the SEW-Eurodrive Inter Dominion Trotting Championship.

2010 Ballarat Pacing Cup Final Field & Barrier Draw:

The second rankings for the WATPAC Inter Dominion Championship were released on Wednesday with Highview Tommy, Tanabi Bromac and Scotty Mach gaining the highest lifts.

Highview Tommy moves from ranking 45 to 27 on the basis of its win in the Summer Cup in Aukland defeating the likes of Changeover (9).

Tanabi Bromac finished second in the Barastoc Grand Circuit Wrest Point Tasmania Cup behind Bettors Strike (4) and moved to ranking 22, whilst the lowly ranked Scotty Mach (78) won a $20 000 event in Auckland to move to 63.

Ohoka Dallas moved into the top 40 ranked pacers at 33 also off the back of its recent New Zealand performances against other higher ranked Inter Dominion aspirants.

Highly ranked Bold Cruiser and the former star Sting Lika Bee have already been withdrawn by the respective connections from the Championship.

Connections have until 12 noon on Monday 11^th January to withdraw from the WATPAC Inter Dominion with no Acceptance Fee penalty incurred.

The Cran Dalgety-trained Bettors Strike has displayed striking form recently, claiming a sensational victory in the Group 1 SEW-Eurodrive Victoria Cup ahead of a top-class field last week just after running a controversial dead-heat for first in the Group 2 Deacon Cranbourne Cup.

The five-year-old gelding is now vying for back-to-back success in the Barastoc Grand Circuit, Australasia’s premier harness racing series.

Hobart’s Tasmania Cup will be the eighth event in the 15-race series, and Bettors Strike currently sits on second place with seven points following his first place in the Victoria Cup and second place in the NZ Cup. The NZ Cup winner Monkey King is still in the lead with fifteen points, despite only placing fourth in the Victoria Cup last Friday.

Following his run in Tasmania, Bettors Strike will then begin preparation for the next big pacing feature, the $400 000 Group 1 BIG6 Hunter Cup at Moonee Valley on February 6. The race will be the final harness meeting held on a Saturday night at the Moonee Valley venue.

It was an intensely close finish in the feature race of the night as the five-year-old gelding, Bettors Strike ($6.50), trained by Cran Dalgety used the sprint lane to overtake and defeat the clear favourite at $2.30 Smoken Up by just 1.2m with Queensland pacing star Blacks A Fake ($7.30) merely a half-head back in third place.

The son of Bettors Delight clocked a gross time of 2:41.1m over the 2240m prestigious staying event for a mile rate record for the distance of 1:55.7, claiming the lucrative $270 000 to-the-winner prize for his connections. The prizemoney came at the perfect time too, as HRV stewards declared Bettors Strike’s Cranbourne Cup victory was in fact a dead heat after runner-up Ohoka Nevada’s connections protested the photo finish and the previously declared winners were forced to surrender half of the first place purse.

Bettors Strike, who was ridden by Dexter Dunn for the victory on Friday night, has now won 13 of his 51 career starts and is unbeaten in Australia.  He has now also moved up to second place on the Barastoc Grand Circuit leaderboard with seven points, following Monkey King with fifteen points.

The victory was also Dalgety’s third Victoria Cup after his former champion Desperate Comment had back-to-back success in 1996 & 1997.

Last year’s Victoria Cup winner Melpark Major could only manage fifth this year behind Monkey King who swooped out wide to secure fourth place just 3.2m back after having raced towards the back of the pack.

2009 SEW-Eurodrive Victoria Cup Results: