And boy, is he glad Herlihy heeded his advice.

Dobson bought Gotta Go Cullen, the talented son of Dobson's super-sire Christian Cullen for an undisclosed sum last year, believed to be seven figures, but the punters and pundits had largely ignored the entire out of Sparkling Burgundy in the lead-up to the race.

Dobson, though, had some confidence - and even more so when Gotta Go Cullen managed to follow out Classic Cullen.

"He rang me when I was playing golf yesterday and he said the horse is well," Dobson said.

"I said ' I want you to take a couple of risks tomorrow because he is now a stallion.

"He called me during the week and said 'He could finish second tonight and win next year' - I said "that's not good enough" because things can happen with horses."

Gotta Go Cullen has been quietly creeping along in his progression to open-class, but now he's here - and in quite a fashion - Dobson has a few ideas floating around in his head and perhaps even a trip to the United States.

"I'll talk to Tony about that - if Tony wants to go, we'll go," Dobson said.

"It's always been a dream - I was going to take Mainland Banner and that fell through. I think this horse could do well in America."

Dobson puts Gotta Go Cullen's win just behind the career exploits of his father, Christian Cullen - and ahead of the 2005 New Zealand Cup win of Mainland Banner.

"I love racing and he's a stunning horse - he's going to get better and better. Everyone said I paid too much for him - have I paid too much for him now?"

"Mainland Banner was huge when she won the cup - but they were all saying (Gotta Go Cullen's) not an open-class horse, he's a four-year-old. I'm not a big punter but I had a nice bet on him tonight."

The expected race pattern was thrown into turmoil when Baileys Dream galloped as the gate pulled away, practically handing Classic Cullen and driver Mark Purdon the lead.

The 6-Year-Old son of Christian Cullen remained in the lead until Baileys Dream made a bold mid-race move after settling back and took over the lead.

Little went right for trainer Steven Reid driving Monkey King, with the Sands A Flyin speed machine forced to sit parked for the first 1800m of the race before finally taking up the lead ahead of Baileys Dream with 900m to go.

The "Monkey" was gallant in the straight, but it was "Iceman" Herlihy who drove like the master he is, swooping up the passing lane after Baileys Dream moved out to tackle his stablemate on the home turn.

Gotta Go Cullen chewed up the last 400m on a 28.8 rate, to see off a brave Monkey King by half a neck with Baileys Dream another neck back in third.

Awesome Armbro recorded his second fourth in two years in the race, while Classic Cullen was disappointing after leading then getting a nice run when Purdon got him off the markers with plenty of time to spare.

Click here to view the Harness Racing New Zealand live racing video (in .wmv video format for Broadband internet users).

Matt Smith