Racing: Blacks A Fake seeks to be the real deal

Blacks A Fake is chasing his fifth Interdominion Grand Final title at Alexandra Park. Photo / Gary Wild

They are an unlikely couple to be knocking on the door of the greatest racing moment ever on New Zealand soil.

But Natalie Rasmussen and Blacks A Fake are used to doing the improbable, some would say impossible.

Tomorrow night, the young lady with the shock of blond hair from rural Queensland and the 10-year-old gelding who was almost retired a month ago get a shot at the rarest of titles.

While 12 horses in the $800,000 Interdominion Pacing Final at Alexandra Park are racing to be the best tomorrow night, Blacks A Fake is racing to be the best ever.

Not just the best pacer ever to race in this country - you can justifiably claim if Blackie wins his fifth Interdominion title it will be the greatest racing achievement on New Zealand soil.

Okay, this is the part where some of you take a break from reading to scoff, shake your head, hurl abuse and mutter "what about ..."

To many who remember the great gallopers of the past, the champion jockeys, even the incomparable Cardigan Bay, such a suggestion may sound like sacrilege.

But the reality is, if you listed the 50 greatest moments in New Zealand racing's proud history, most would have come on foreign soil.

Because that is where the legends of Melbourne and Caulfield Cup winners and Cox Plate heroes are made.

And the shining thoroughbred moments of Horlicks (Japan), Phar Lap (Mexico), Sunline (Hong Kong) and Balmerino (France) were, unless you turn your atlas upside down, an awfully long way from home.

The great strength of our thoroughbred industry is that we can compete with the best in the world on their soil, but they rarely gallop on ours.

Of course there are legions of New Zealand champions to be revered for their deeds at home. Desert Gold, Gloaming, Kindergarten, Show Gate's Cup Week treble, Castleton's three Wellington Cups, Sleepy Fox's four Easter Handicaps, Bonecrusher and Horlicks at Ellerslie, just to start the list. And let's not forget Koral, Hunterville and now Hypnotize over the jumps.

A little bit closer to Blackie's modus operandi come Cardigan Bay's epic Auckland Cup or Lyell Creek's brave return from the States to thrash our best trotters as an old man.

These moments are to be treasured, replayed to the new generation of racing fans to show them why our industry has survived against financial odds.

But none of these horses, in a single event, can match what Blackie is trying to achieve on New Zealand soil tomorrow night.

The Interdominion is the Cox Plate of harness racing and tomorrow night Blacks A Fake might win his fifth final.

We should feel lucky such a mind-boggling opportunity arises at Alexandra Park.

Imagine if you could have been trackside to see Makybe Diva's third Melbourne Cup or Kingston Town's Cox Plate treble. That is the rarefied air we find ourselves in tomorrow night.

And let's not forget Blackie should be gunning for six final wins tomorrow night, had he not been savaged by a crazed Auckland Reactor in the 2009 final, only to be caught late by Mr Feelgood.

If the history of racing is a long time, the future of racing, God willing, is even longer. But you can bet your house that no horse will ever be in the position of chasing a fifth Interdom Final win again.

Especially not a horse who was struck down by equine influenza, a horse who has suffered two heart fibrillations, a horse who never actually appears to be going fast.

So, can he do it?

He has his chance, a realistic, good chance. Barrier two means he will almost certainly lead and then a lesser horse will have to run past him. Somebody will have to sucker-punch Ali.

"He is as well as he can be and I will be leading for sure and staying there," says Rasmussen.

"Winning any Interdominion is special and his fourth one last year was probably the most satisfying.

"But if he wins this week that will be something else all together. After everything he has been through, to win it five, to win it here, that would be the greatest thrill ever."

It is a hard sentiment to argue with.