Hasn't the world of harness racing come a long way in the last few years?
On Sunday night, we saw a 4yr-old pacer - who clearly still has plenty to learn - down Australasia's best in the Miracle Mile in Australasian record time.
Have Faith In Me's victory in 1.47.5 for the mile was exciting, but possibly because of what is yet to come.
He's a gelding, so has plenty of seasons left in him provided he stays sound, and once all his racing manners are in place, then look out.
The 4yr-old's last-gasp win over Lennytheshark also captured the attention of Otago Daily Times day editor Dave Cannan, a walking encyclopedia of all things harness racing.
His first question to me was: "How fast do you reckon Have Faith In Me was going?''.
I boldly told him I would call on my mathematics genius to figure that out.
Five minutes later, I found a website which could do the calculation for me . . .
Anyway, here are the statistics. Have Faith In Me's average speed for the 1609m was 53.88kmh.
Or, to put it another way, Have Faith In Me was covering almost 15m per second.
. . . here comes Speed Racer
So how does that compare with the other codes?
I checked with New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, and Corndale's time of 1.32.08 for the 1600m at Ellerslie in 1993 is still considered to be the national record for a very similar distance to the Miracle Mile.
On average, Corndale was covering the Ellerslie turf at a speed of 62.61kmh or just over 17m per second.
That is just a shade slower than the greyhound Winsome Ashley's average speed of 63.88kmh when she won the 2008 Auckland cup at Manukau.
Of course, that was over about a third of the distance of Corndale and Have Faith In Me, but that's a middle-distance race for a greyhound.
Have Faith In Me's record run of 1.47.5 - 0.2sec inside the previous Australasian record set by his older sister, Adore Me, last year - is very timely, as Harness Racing New Zealand has just jazzed up its national records page to show the history of previous records.
It shows the national mile record has improved by 5.2sec between Neroship in 1990 and Border Control's 1.50.6 mile at Ashburton in 2013.
The real improvement has come since 2009 when Smiling Shard and Kiwi Ingenuity lowered the horses/geldings and fillies/mares times respectively.
But here's the most telling time difference.
The national 2600m mobile pacing record 42 years ago held by Josias with a time of 3.26.6. Locharburn (3.06.5) went 20.1sec faster at Addington last month.
There's a lot to be said for good tracks, aerodynamic carts and and the injection of American speed in the bloodlines.
Lazy Fiver
Unfortunately, Fight For Glory threw in an average run on Sunday.
Check out Gallant Ruby chasing three in a row in race 6 at Wingatui tomorrow.
- Check out Matt's video with leading junior driver Brad Williamson
