Forever and a day, short-priced favourites and major futurity finals have proven synonymous.
It’s the nature of age-restricted racing, where gender and generation hierarchies are well established and class disparities easily identifiable, even for casual observers.
Tonight, Melton Park will stage 12 Vicbred Super Series deciders, all at Group 1 level, for aggregate prizemoney of $1.5 million.
No fewer than 10 of these events currently harbour even money or odds-on favourites.
Nevertheless, this isn’t your average Super Series climax.
Without doubt, some of the programme’s genuine shorties are deserving of their prohibitive quotes.
But not many.
And, predictably enough, the VSS trotting finals seem wilier and less predictable than their pacing equivalents.
All six squaregaiting finals have somewhat shaky foundations, four in particular.
In tonight’s opening event, the Super Series Final for three-year-old males, The Locomotive should salute yet there’s little room for error.
If, unexpectedly, he fails to find the front or, more possibly, endured mid-race pressure, Wayne Potter’s defending Super Series champ isn’t so much better than his rivals that he’ll just prevail.
Then there’s the VSS final for four-year-old trotting mares where eight of the 12 runners have serious winning hopes and the equivalent decider for four-year-old males where Arcee Phoenix seems more vulnerable than markets would suggest to his stablemate Aroha Koe.
Chis Svanosio, who trains both runners, has already stated as much.
Frighteningly, or fabulously, the blue riband meeting ends with three more squaregaiting features.
In race 11, Rockinwithattitude warrants her short quote, but also faces a crack field of current and future stars.
Finally, we have the Super Series climax for juvenile fillies where Kiwi invader We Can Have It All and the unbeaten Violet Stanford should dominate, though again, neither will enjoy much room for error.
The old punting adage may be odds-on, look on.
Tonight, particularly in the half-dozen trotting finals, the new idiom might be odds-on, look deep.
It's becoming an increasingly familiar theme, but yet again tonight, the girls and not the boys will likely manifest most excitement on one of Victorian harness racing’s biggest annual meetings.
Opinions will differ, but there’s a very strong argument tonight’s Vicbred Super Series Final for three-year-old fillies rates as race of the night.
The depth of that contest is simply staggering.
First, there’s Sahara Breeze, this year’s Australian Pacing Gold winner who draws the pole.
Then there’s unbeaten Nutrien Final winner Sweet Bella and defending Vicbred champ Joyful, both trained by Emma Stewart.
The steak knives are represented by Group 1 placegetters Perfect In Pink and Soho Seraphine along with untapped speed freak Vee Em Gee Macray.
Every event on tonight’s programme will be special, but don’t be surprised if the girls shine brightest yet again.
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.