THOSE with a peripheral or prejudiced view of harness racing often scoff at portrayals of its egalitarian honour code. 

They watch the wilful wars staged on SKY Racing or Trots Vision and refuse to reconcile the brutality of those battles with the fraternal image harness racing holds so dear. 

On Sunday afternoon Toolern Vale trainer Gary Hoban lost his battle with blood cancer. 

Hoban wasn’t the biggest name in the sport he’d chosen to pursue. 

His black-and-white colours didn’t fill foes with fear or rage 

He was, however, a fierce competitor; a man with single-minded intent both as a trainer and driver. 

And he was good; star trotter Acacia Ridge was his headline horse but his recent daughters of Sierra Tango have also been quality performers. 

That’s on the track. 

Off the track Hoban was a generous gentleman, a cool, caring head with an enormous love for family and an equally enduring passion for a sport we, in Australia, call the trots. 

It’s courtesy of those paradoxical personality traits, his love of competition and his capacity for compassion, that Hoban will be so deservedly mourned by his harness racing brethren. 

It’s a real thing, you see, this incredible loyalty and love trotting people feel for one another. 

It’s old school; it’s devout. 

And Hoban was properly loved. 

IMAGINE this. 

You’re a leviathan breeder surrounded by standardbreds with blue bloodlines and you’re single brief is to choose just one that will represent family and friends in the most potent possible way. 

You’ve been touched by the terrors of an ominous illness with no particular profile and this filly is being charged with task of informing an industry of its perils and raising awareness of its existence. 

Gee you’d hope it was good. 

Fortunately, Tough Tilly, who took out the $350,000 Australian Pacing Gold Final for three-year-old fillies on Saturday night at Melton is good, very good. 

In fact, she’s very, very, very good. 

For those that don’t know, Tough Tilly was named in honour of Tilly Wilkes, a wonderful, courageous young girl suffering from ‘the worst disease you’ve never heard of’, Epidermolysis Bulosa; or EB for short. 

This is not a medical journal, but just for context, EB is an insidious skin disease with a broad prognostic spectrum. 

Some cases are mild, others fatal. 

Craig Judd, who along with father, Peter, bred Tough Tilly, has a daughter named Kendall who suffers with the condition. 

And it was during a trip to the Royal Children’s Hospital, and a chance meeting with Corey Wilkes, Tilly’s dad, that the plan to have her represent Tilly and all EB sufferers was hatched. 

At that point they hoped she’d win some races. 

She’s now a multiple Group 1 winner and quite possible the most important pacer in the world. 

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.