Honesty, as Billy Joel once warbled, is very hard to find; particularly in racing of all three codes.
Predominantly, the white lies on offer, these days at least, are neither nefarious nor dangerous in nature.
Despite what many may wish to believe about harness racing in particular, the ravenous rorts of yesteryear are cheerfully consigned to the past.
And each of racing’s dutiful denominations are all the better for it.
Nevertheless, a definitively deceptive element remains.
And that element emanates via one source: the media.
For whatever reason, racing scribes, in their superficial desire to war with other sports, passionately promote every feature or semi-feature contest as something far removed from its actual nature.
Such is the case with tonight’s Vic Sires Classic at Tabcorp Park Melton.
In recent years, prior to some seriously significant calendar changes, the Group 3 contest referenced above has been a clash which played above its weight.
One, cursory glance at its honour roll fortifies this fact.
In the last two decades, horses like Lombo Pocket Watch, Guaranteed, Shadow Sax, Menin Gate, Poster Boy and Bondi Lockdown have claimed this contest on their paths to far greater riches.
Tonight, however, with megastar three-year-old Catch A Wave tackling the Vicbred Championship Final against older adversaries, the Vic Sires Classic is an excellent, yet far from phenomenal event.
Khafaji has the scope for excellence but hasn’t quite produced it, Beach Villa has bloodlines bluer than the ocean without performances to match, Interest Free is flying but requires certain favours and others, like Commander Buzz and Star Celebrity, remain largely unknown quantities.
As proper punters will tell you, however, form-lines and expectations often count for naught.
One truth we can rely on is this.
Whoever wins this evening’s feature classic contest will etch their names alongside all-time age restricted greats.
Yet, as it goes, the winner of tonight’s race may not be the one that makes their play for greatness.
Such is the great uncertainty – however unlikely – of the racing game.
Even before Harness Racing Australia ratified our switch of seasons to coincide with the calendar year, four-year-olds have fortified their earlier progression.
Once upon a rainbow, serious open class standardbreds required experience and seasoning before deigning to declare their free-for-all intentions.
This is no longer the case.
Tonight, at Tabcorp Park, two emerging stars – both four years of age – are planning, and expecting, to run roughshod over their more mature challengers in the meeting’s fast class event.
And they very likely will.
The question for punters is whom, between Rock N Roll Doo and Yambukian, will prevail.
Fitness favours Yambukian, the draw favours Rock N Roll Doo.
The best result for harness racing, regardless of the winner, is that these two behemoths draw away to fight things out.
New blood is everything in sport, and this duo, without question, represents the future.
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.