SEARCH Instagram or Facebook and there’s no evidence of any link between Canadian rapper Drake and star pacer Expensive Ego.
Yet the curse following Belinda McCarthy’s outstanding five-year-old endures.
Real or imagined, North American sporting fans, some at least, have proffered the possibility that sports stars and teams either promoted by Drake or pictured with him seem to come unstuck.
Popular culture has dubbed this the ‘Drake curse’; though even that hitmaker would be hard pressed to create the shocking Karma following Expensive Ego.
Staggeringly, that five-time Group 1 winner has finished first in two of his last three feature-race attempts and lost them both on protest.
The rot first set in when dropping December’s Inter Dominion final at Menangle and continued last weekend in the Group 2 Casey Classic.
As it turned out, Expensive Ego’s torrid fortune paved the path for naturalised Victorian local, Triple Eight, to claim the second biggest win of his burgeoning career.
More than that, however, it further convoluted the painfully perplexing puzzle punters face this Saturday night.
For those that haven’t jerried, we’re now just five days out from the Group 1 Del-Re National A. G. Hunter Cup.
Recently, since switching standing start conditions with handicaps attached to mobile conditions without them, Victoria’s richest and most prestigious Grand Circuit contest has harboured limiting winning hopes.
Not so this time around.
Strange as it sounds, many of Australia’s pre-eminent pacers are tackling this time-honoured target slightly below their best.
Even ignoring his cursed campaign, Expensive Ego seems clearly below where he was through most of the Inter Dominion series.
Defending champion Lochinvar Art appears one, or even two runs short of his breathtaking best.
King Of Swing, the winner of this race in 2020 when the world was pre-pandemic, won without impressing in Sydney last weekend.
On one level, having the Hunter Cup’s highest profile players under collective clouds clearly isn’t ideal.
On another, it fortifies the $500,000 feature lacking in recent editions.
Suddenly, the previously referenced Triple Eight becomes a major winning chance, as does triple Country Cup king Spirit Of St Louis, 10-time Group 1 queen Amazing Dream and maybe several others.
For everyone’s sake, however, all harness zealots are hoping this headline contest isn’t decided in the stewards' room.
And that the ‘Drake Curse’, or whatever it might be, releases Expensive Ego from its clutches.
Click: Watch the A.G. Hunter Cup barrier draw broadcast replay
MUCH has been made of New Zealand’s squaregaiting superiority in recent months.
But is it based on merit?
Saturday night, Majestuoso led, pulled, and simply outclassed a powerful assortment of adversaries in the Group 1 TAB V L Dullard Trotters Cup, including Kiwi star and veteran known as Temporale.
Without Sundees Son or Bolt For Brilliance here to stake their claims, comparing our best against their best is purely academic.
But if Majestuoso monsters this Friday night’s What The Hill Great Southern Star series, marginalising his trans-Tasman status seems a tad unfair.
The opinions expressed in The Forum are those of the author and may not be attributed to or represent policies of Harness Racing Victoria, which is the state authority and owner of thetrots.com.au.