Few that harbour serious commitment and passion to southern hemisphere harness racing would argue that the forces of evolution and revolution have reframed the game in recent years.
Once, burgeoning stars were forced to finish their apprenticeships before featuring in Group 1 Grand Circuit races like the Hunter Cup, Miracle Mile or New Zealand Cup.
Those days have past.
Now, with their athletic advantage, four and five-year-old pacers can simply outrun their older adversaries, as we saw with Catch A Wave at Menangle little more than seven days ago.
Despite this rapid recalibration, however, there remains an incredibly significant place for late developers and bottomless warriors to ply their pacing trade.
On March 4 at Melton all but one open age contest was won by horses eight years of age.
Another two fortified the theme at Vic harness headquarters last weekend.
And far from being an indictment on their younger rivals, it’s an incredible, inspirational revelation.
The exportation of Australian horses to North America has always existed; but the cavernous leakage of recent years is an enormous problem for a sport that thrives on product and population.
It’s naive to question why these sales transpire – basic economics dictate, in many cases, they must.
Still, there must be something thought provoking for owners watching equine octogenarians prevail so frequently at metropolitan level.
Owners, courtesy of paying the bills for the standardbreds we watch and enjoy, have every right to take the cash on offer when it’s there; typically before their steed reaches his or her ‘mark’ where vulnerabilities are savagely exposed.
Here’s the thing, however.
Owners – in the most part – love their horses and relish the concept of watching them race up close and personal.
That means, there’s an obvious opportunity to sell the positives of staying here, even if they may lose out on a one-off payday most never planned for.
Beyond that, there’s the wonderful point of difference harness racing has forever enjoyed over their ‘rival’ codes.
Greyhounds race relentlessly but enjoy short careers and thoroughbreds rarely race on Saturday afternoons past a certain age.
Forever and a day, punters have loved following their favourite pacers and trotters year after year, season after season.
The importance of protecting this advantage is both powerful and also self-evident.
SHE hasn’t had things easy in her 41 career starts, but Cheyella is a long way above average.
So confident was trainer/driver Laura Crossland with her fast emerging mare that she happily attacked for the front in Melton’s eighth event Saturday night.
When that assault was unsuccessful and the semaphore board revealed a Lead Time of 42.90-secs Cheyella was entitled to hit a wall at some juncture.
Instead, she powered home for an ultra-impressive triumph on her way to much bigger, much better things.
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.