The inaugural $1 million Nullarbor was a success on just about every level, including giving WA harness racing a much needed opportunity to attract genuine eastern state stars back to race at Gloucester Park.

Speak to any of the locals and, although they’re passionate about their own backyard, they miss the days the biggest names from NSW and Victoria would cross the country to tackle races like the WA and Fremantle Cups.

Those days are a long time ago now. Washakie was the last eastern states “raider” to win the WA Cup and that was way back in 2010.

My Field Marshal did go from NSW for Tim Butt to win the 2019 Fremantle Cup.

But you’ve got to go back to the 1990s when Our Sir Vancelot won two WA Cups (1997 and ’98) and Westburn Grant in 1991 and ’92 for when the glamour visitors made the race their own.

Three horses travelled from NSW to WA for the Nullarbor and two of them – Betterzippit and Spirit Of St Louis – ran the quinella.

Without them, the Nullarbor would have been just another glorified Gloucester Park free-for-all.

The shots fired by Jason Grimson in the build-up with Betterzippit and Gary Hall Sr’s opinions of the interstate raiders really gave the race some oomph.

Grimson was right, but the winner was the talkability the race created.

And, in many ways, that’s what the WA and Fremantle Cups haven't been in recent times. So, why did the Nullarbor buck the trend?

Obviously the $1 million purse and the whole slot concept played a big role.

But even more important was the timing.

There’s nothing wrong with the prize money for the WA and Freo Cups at $450,000 and $300,000 respectively, but where they sit on the calendar has become problematic.

January 13 and 27, where they run this year, is a mayhem zone.

It’s hot off the heels of the Inter Dominion series and smack bang in the guts of Victoria’s biggest race - the Del-Re National A G Hunter Cup was on February 4 this year.

Also, the Miracle Mile is just around the corner on March 4 and to contest that you’ve got to run at Menangle in late February.

There is every reason not to take a horse away from Victoria or NSW at that time.

And are they really the best timeslots from a WA perspective these days? It’s holiday time and many people escape Perth for the holidays spots down south.

Why can’t one of the WA or Fremantle Cups be moved from January to be run a week before or after the Nullarbor? 

Build a mini-Carnival. Give interstaters even more reason to look seriously at Perth. Make whichever race to move worth $500,000, maybe even offer a $100,000 bonus to any pacer who can win the big double.

Providing flights are assured, it would be very hard to say no to that sort of lure if you had a top open-class pacer.

Raiders running one-two in last Friday’s Nullarbor will surely only serve to make the trip even more attractive.

I’d love to see Gloucester Park embrace the idea of a big double.

Further, if say the WA Cup moves to create that double, then why leave the Fremantle Cup flying solo in January?

Tag on to the big Perth thoroughbred racing in late November. Running the Fremantle Cup the night before WA’s biggest thoroughbred race, the Railway, would make lots of sense.

Looking at the dates later this year, the Fremantle Cup would be on November 18 and the Inter Dominion would start exactly two weeks later at Albion Park. It’s very doable to tackle both, most specifically for any WA pacers considered good enough.

Like anything new, the Nullarbor was successful, but has the potential to go to the next level with some tinkering.

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.