Once in a generation a harness racing racehorse comes along that redefines the breed with displays of power and speed that lifts the overall standard to the next level.
Last night at Tabcorp Park Menangle, Have Faith In Me gave a performance for the ages with a stunning win in the $200,000 Chariots Of Fire and in doing so the lightly raced four year old lay down the gauntlet to the established grand circuit stars ahead of the $750,000 Miracle Mile on February 28th.
Plenty of the form analysts questioned weather Have Faith In Me from the outside gate of 10 could give all his rivals a start and beat them last night in Australia's premier four year old race.
The former New Zealand mare Arms Of An Angel was the main pick of those analysts to puncture the Have Faith In Me bubble.
Before the race had barely started, the whole complexion of the race had changed.
Arms Of An Angel had blown the score up and was eight to ten lengths behind the bunch early in the race.
Meanwhile Natalie Rasmussen had sent Have Faith In Me forward on a mission as the soon as the gate hit the starting point and was three wide with cover handy to the pace after the first 400 metres was cut out in a quick 26.6.
Following Cruz Bromac around, Have Faith In Me found the death seat outside him at the 800 metres in 55.1 after a 28.5 second quarter.
Natalie applied more pressure down the back straight and the third quarter whizzed by in 27 seconds and it was apparent at that point that Have Faith In Me had his rivals in serious trouble.
When Natalie gave him a little bit of rein at the top of the straight, Have Faith In Me absolutely bolted away and went down to the line under double wraps for a victory that will live in the memory for a long time.
Cutting the last 400 metres out in a slick 26.9, Have Faith In Me stopped the timer in a brilliant 1:48.8, the first four year old to break 1:50 in Australasia.
Lord Zin Zan after trailing most of the way ran into second 10 metres away while the early breaker Arms Of An Angel made ground late from last to run third, another four metres behind Lord Zin Zan.
Co -trainer Mark Purdon is never one to hype up one of his many stars to the media but his praise for the son of Bettor's Delight was instant and left nobody in any doubt of how the champion trainer sees his latest star when he stated that Have Faith In Me was as good a horse as he has ever handled.
Speaking to Sky commentator Adam Hamilton post race, Mark Purdon said the scary thing was that Natalie reckoned Have Faith In Me had a few gears left yet at the finish.
The only disappointing aspect to the ground breaking win by the New Zealand trained and owned champion was the response of the local media.
They became fixated on the performance of Arms Of An Angel to run third and the following line was repeated again and again over the next 60 minutes.
" While not wanting to take anything away from the performance of Have Faith In Me, the run of Arms Of An Angel was unbelievable."
So while stating they didn't want to take anything away from the brilliant performance of Have Faith In Me, they then proceeded to do exactly that again and again and again.
The performance of Have Faith In Me in absolutely destroying a quality Chariots Of Fire field in 1:48.8 should have seen all the kudos and spotlight focussed on him post race.
The fact Have Faith In Me had to fight for the spotlight with a mare who ran third was disappointing to say the least.
Harnesslink Media