It was a lesson about the difference between the best and the rest.
It would be easy to disregard Saturday night's Victoria Derby at Moonee Valley as your average, garden variety $A100,000 classic.
The New Zealand raider Rare Gem trained by a champion trainer and driven by a champion reinsman comes from the ace draw to win easily. Simple.
But hiding behind those bare facts was the real story of a moment of driving perfection from Tony Herlihy that turned certain defeat into crushing victory.
While the form indicated Rare Gem was the one to beat his ace draw could have proved the kiss of death because of his lack of gate speed.
Aussie bookies took the threat so seriously that Rare Gem was replaced as favourite for many of them by Manifold Bay.
Their thinking was Rare Gem would be slow away, get locked away on the markers while Manifold Bay would get a perfect run through from the second line and dominate while the Kiwi was looking for a run.
On paper it was a sound assumption, even logical.
But the laws of racing logic don't always apply to Rare Gem's driver Tony Herlihy.
As expected, Rare Gem was beaten out of the gate and things started to look seriously grim when Niobium and then Golden Magic loomed up wide on the track to attack leader Tenfold.
As first Niobium and then Golden Magic found the lead, Rare Gem was dangerously close to finding himself locked away for the remainder of the trip.
But just as the door to Derby glory was slamming in Rare Gem's face, Herlihy kicked it open again.
Slight pressure on the reins and Rare Gem was pulled back into a split-second hole which would allow him to escape his prison on the inside markers. Just 200m later Rare Gem was in the one-one.
From there Herlihy elected to send him forward to sit parked from where he controlled the race.
At the 400m he gave him his head and Rare Gem gave Herlihy his first Victoria Derby victory, putting two lengths on his rivals at the top of the straight, a gap they never looked like closing.
Afterwards Herlihy was ... well, Herlihy.
"Things were a little tight there after the start but we had a bit of luck and it worked out well," he said, as if producing a freakish drive to win a Derby is an every day occurence.
While Herlihy's genius won Rare Gem the Derby, it was also a victory for the incredible training production line Mark Purdon has developed in the last five years.
While he is still on the way up and will develop into an open class contender, Rare Gem may still only be the fourth best 3-year-old in Purdon's stable - with Young Rufus, Taihape Tickler and the now-injured Perfect Seelster having claims to being rated above him.
Of course don't trying telling that to his owners, the RUNVS syndicate which contains several staff members of the Auckland Trotting Club, who race Rare Gem with South Auckland breeder Anne Phillips.
"He is a lovely horse and the way he has improved in the last two months I can see him going on to be a better four and five-year-old," said Herlihy.
"It was a good effort to win because he is more or less still on his first racing campaign."
While Herlihy was modest enough to say luck played its part in the win, the victory proved the belief the best make their own luck.
Because while Rare Gem was dominating the Victoria Derby up front, his arch-rival Manifold Bay was in trouble.
The classy Victorian settled well back and driver David Miles elected to pull three wide at the 1200m point to avoid being denied a run. But rather than move up to the leaders he sat three wide in midfield, waiting for his moment to attack.
But just as he made his move at the 500m he was wiped out by NSW pacer Franco Jonquill, who pulled out in front of him, forcing Manifold Bay into a gallop.
He lost 40m and went back to last and his performance to finish sixth, hard up on the back of the placegetters was unbelievable.
"With a clear run there is no doubt I would have won," said a dejected Miles after the inquiry which saw Franco Jonquill relegated to seventh for the interference.
But that was the story of the Victoria Derby.
Rare Gem, who was supposed to be in danger of suffering traffic problems, got the perfect trip and won.
And Manifold Bay, who the bookies thought would end up in the best place in the race, was forced to sit three wide before being knocked out of the race.
Some would call it luck.
Others would call it the difference between the best and the rest.
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