WITHOUT doubt, Victorian harness racing’s greatest strength right now is its depth of participant talent.

On Saturday night at Melton 10 races were staged and the spoils from those contests were shared between 10 different trainers and nine different drivers. 

And that kind of spread is no aberration. 

Anecdotally, the lure of Victoria’s trotting scene seems clear. 

More tracks, more races and a greater diversity of classes makes it infinitely easier to properly place one’s horses. 

And the influx of Anthony Butt, Shane Sanderson, Nathan Purdon and Tim Butt in recent months vividly illustrates that point. 

But witnessing our metropolitan riches shared the way they were on Saturday night, the way they are most Saturday nights, is true evidence that the Victoria model is working as it should. 

Seemingly everyone has solutions around how to promote harness racing to a broader audience. 

Those same wise souls also have ways we can protect smaller players from leaving the game. 

In reality, nothing kills those two birds better than spreading the wealth.

The punters harness racing seeks to recruit like competitive racing with sometimes unpredictable results.

They want to believe the major few trainers don’t have some sort of oligopoly over the metropolitan landscape.

Participants, likewise, simply want the hope of winning races at Tabcorp Park.

And on Saturday night, with 10 different trainers winning 10 different races the hope that we speak of remains alive and well. 

NOT only was there a great spread of winners but a wonderful number of narratives to come from the contest staged at Melton Saturday night.

First, there were the headline horses, Spellbound and Max Delight, further confirming their equine charisma.

For the second straight start Spellbound saluted with plenty up her sleeve.

Is she winning with glamour right now? No, she isn’t. Is she still winning? Yes; three times from as many Aussie starts.

Max Delight was more flamboyant claiming the TAB Young Pedro Free For All and, hopefully, he’s on track for a Queensland raid come July. 

They were the front-page stories, but the subplots were arguably more inviting. 

Think of Teetreetommy, the mammoth, pacing-bred squaregaiter who has now won four from his past seven after winning six of his first 26.

Then there’s Anywhere Hugo, the one-time budding superstar also getting back on track after a period in the wilderness. 

Delve deeper in the weekend’s winners and you’ll see Classy Spirit, who ended up with Lisa Miles after beginning her career with the late, great Gavin Lang and what that success would have meant to Miles and her owners. 

Celebrating these stories is an enormous part of elevating racing’s status among the broader sporting landscape.

And harness racing, even more than most, has so many stories to tell.

 

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.