Victorian megastar Just Believe will chase his 10th Group 1 in Tuesday’s $NZ400,000 Group 1 Dominion Trot at Addington.

A couple of hours later, mighty NSW stayer Swayzee will be favourite to successfully defend his crown in the $NZ1 million NZ Cup.

The magnitude of a successful defence is huge when you consider only two Australian-trained pacers have won the NZ Cup since 1987.

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It gets even bigger when you consider his pathway to the Cup.

Swayzee raced and won at Young last Friday night – a seven-hour return road trip – from his Menangle base.

That’s less than four days before he tackles the NZ Cup, clearly the most gruelling race in this part of the world.

Swayzee has a flight from Sydney to Auckland today (Sunday) and then a connector to Christchurch.

It must be the most daring feature race assault of all-time.

Latest markets have him $2.80, ahead of the two young Kiwi stars Merlin ($3.20) and Dont Stop Dreaming ($4.50).

Australia’s other two Cup runners are Victoria’s multiple Group 1 winner Better Eclipse ($14) and emerging Queenslander, Aroda ($51).

Just Believe, who won all four starts in an NZ raid earlier this year, completely dominates Dominion betting from barrier two at $1.20. The other three Aussie runners are outsiders: Arcee Phoenix ($41), One Over All ($51) and Kyvalley Hotspur ($126).

Former Miracle Mile winner and eight-time Group 1 winner Catch A Wave adds further to the Aussie flavour in the Junior free-for-all (race four).

It’s a warm-up for his major target, the $NZ200,000 Group 1 NZ Free-for-all at Addington on Friday.

Also on Friday, unbeaten Aussie trotting filly Keayang Zahara is $1.70 favourite to win her 12th race in the inaugural $NZ500,000 The Ascent for three-year-old trotters.

And Just Believe’s young stablemate, Hes From Heaven, will fly the Aussie flag in the $NZ500,000 The Velocity for three-year-old pacers.

• Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.

Originally published as Swayzee’s unorthodox path headlines Australia’s New Zealand Cup harness assault