FOR the last seven weeks, Harness Racing Victoria has produced a brand-new digital offering aptly branded Burning Questions. 

Via this platform participants join experts to try and solve seminal punting problems plaguing the weekend’s metropolitan programme. 

Typically, a quartet of such queries will require resolution. 

Tonight, at Bendigo’s first Saturday meeting since their Cup card, you could triple that number and still be none the wiser. 

Let’s focus on race five as an example. 

This event alone is more mysterious than Twin Peaks and Stranger Things combined. 

Will Bar Room Banta sharply improve second up from a break? Can Jimmy The Irishman negate a second line draw? Is Tango Tara simply superior to his rivals? 

GOOD FORM: JASON BONNINGTON'S SATURDAY NIGHT GAME PLAN UP NOW

Then there’s the question of Struve’s tactical intentions from an awkward gate eight draw in race six; and whether Western Sonador can justify his short odds fresh up in race seven. 

On one level, punters prey on predictability; their left brain lives for races where methodical mapping and reliable form lines pave the path to glory. 

On another, they relish the riddles which symbolize meetings such as this. 

That’s because the stakes for solving such riddles are greater than is standard. 

The fact that Bendigo is staging such an intriguing programme on what has become harness racing’s showcase night each week is simply outstanding. 

Even more than thoroughbred racing, the trots are terrifically tied to their regional roots. 

That much was evident during last year’s extended Victorian lockdown, and one suspects that long-term lovers of harness racing will love watching Bendigo, Geelong, Cranbourne and Kilmore take centre-stage over the next four Saturday nights. 

Unlike the gallops, who have four metro tracks at their disposal, every state in Australia is driven and sustained by one ‘major’ venue. 

The truth is, however, that Bendigo, Ballarat, Shepparton and many other Victorian clubs can create an equally appealing avenue for top class competition. 

Though that won’t make finding a winner this evening any easier at all. 

ENJOY THIS WEEK'S BURNING QUESTIONS:

IT’S not quite Bobby Riggs versus Billie Jean King but tonight’s Aldebaran Park Touch Merchant Trotters Free For All will host a battle where both age and gender play significant roles. 

Having somehow returned to something like his best, Sparkling Success is slated to start at short odds despite his second line draw.  

Chief among his dangers is Keayang Livana, a multiple Group 1 winner whose two runs back this campaign have both been utterly outstanding. 

Sparkling Success, for those that don’t know, is a nine-year-old gelding. 

Keayang Livana is a five-year-old mare. 

Squaregaiters, like ruckmen, often improve with age so one shouldn’t be consumed by Sparkling Success’s greybeard status. 

If they back the one-time Great Southern Star champ, it’s well worth worrying if Keayang Livana – or Billie Jean King in this analogy – starts charging ominously when they turn for home.