Marg and Paddy Lee have just completed an excellent 2025 season, harvesting an impressive 104 winners from just 386 starters, with a success rate of 26.94 percent. The mother-and-son training partnership holds all the cards with the two key chances in this year’s iconic heats-in-finals series.
Megastar mare Keayang Zahara is the overwhelming $1.20 favorite on Sportsbet’s all-in market to win the $250,000 final, which would earn her connections an additional $500,000 bonus as part of a Summer of Glory carnival promotion.
She has taken the harness racing world by storm in recent years, with a record 23 wins from 24 starts on her way to the biggest night of her career.
Keayang Zahara’s gun stablemate Jilliby Ballerini is the biggest threat according to punters, with Sportsbet keeping her safe at $6.
Outside of that, Eddie Tappe’s seven-year-old success story Im Bobby is on the third betting line at $15, ahead of reigning Inter Dominion hero Arcee Phoenix at $21 and fellow Lee runner Jilliby Dreamlover, who is considered a $26 shot alongside Chris Lang’s talented veteran Ollivici.
Watts Up Partytime delivered incredible long-odd wins in both his heat and last year’s Great Southern Star final for trainer Andy Gath, but has since been moved back to New South Wales-based conditioner Rickie Alchin. He prepared for the assignment with a Menangle win in his first run back under Alchin’s tutelage last weekend and gets a $34 chance to claim back-to-back titles.
The Great Southern Star is one of the most unique events on the Victorian harness racing calendar and requires trainers, drivers and horses to call on a wide range of qualities.
The top three alternates in each heat (races two and three) will automatically progress to the final, with the next four fastest horses on gross time also finding their place in the Group 1 showdown as race eight on the card. After the qualifying tournaments, finalists are drawn and connections are tasked with selecting a barrier for the decider. So qualifying is the first hurdle, but recovering, finding a good starting position and then performing on the big stage are other crucial challenges for those involved.
Through Tim O’Connor for Harness Racing Victoria
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