On Saturday afternoon, 36 gifted, worthy, proud players will grace the MCG for this year’s AFL Grand Final with up to 10 capable colleagues set to join them in battle throughout the four-quarter contest.
Despite that fact, it's overwhelmingly likely just five or six of these combatants will decide the outcome of this epic event and ultimately lead either the Magpies or Lions to premiership glory.
It’s a curious yet almost indisputable truth that the chasm between very good and truly elite athletes will always prove greater than logic suggests it should be.
This much has been outlined in recent weeks at Melton Park on multiple occasions.
On September 2, Victoria’s metropolitan harness racing headquarters staged the Minuteman Free For All, and like so many open class contests these days, preferential barrier draws were imposed.
As discussed in this column on Saturday, pref draws are instituted to level the playing field and, ideally, encourage more competitive, exciting events.
Often, in lower grade races, this system proves effective, yet in open class contests like the Westburn Grant, that previously referenced breach between very nice and star standardbreds is stark.
In the Westburn Grant, one-time Vic Cup champion Max Delight and free-for-all stalwart Bulletproof Boy locked horns with eight talented but less established adversaries.
Ultimately, Bulletproof Boy won from gate five with Max Delight second from gate four with their alleys less burdensome than normal given gates were assigned via money won in last four starts.
Last weekend’s open class result, however, was somewhat more definitive.
In that contest, the Woodlands Stud Pace, Group 1-winning Vic Cup hopefuls Better Eclipse and Act Now drew gates eight and 11 respectively.
Despite those impositions, these two topliners schooled their talented yet inferior rivals, dominating in transit and bursting clear of the field with Act Now staving off Better Eclipse’s last challenge.
Whether it’s footy, soccer, basketball, or racing, you see, the cream almost always rises to the top.
To the untrained eye, Queen Elida’s Saturday night success at Melton Park – her ninth from 10 starts since March 11 – wouldn’t seem truly meaningful or newsworthy.
Factually speaking, Brent Lilley’s megastar mare started $1.30 in the Chris Howe Trotters Free For All and prevailed over five adversaries - two of whom were well out of their class - by little more than a lip.
Dig a little deeper and this success was among her very best.
Restrained to last early in the piece with very gifted rival Mufasa Metro dawdling in front, Queen Elida had no right to win.
Yet win she did, somehow breaching an eight metre gap, off the pegs, through a pacing-like last half of 55.8sec.
She was one of two magnificent trotting winners on Saturday night, with the other being Keayang Ignite. He claimed race six despite being second-up from an almost four-year break.