KEY POINTS:
As staggering as the statistics are they simply don't do Flashing Red justice.
Sure, the 10-year-old became the oldest New Zealand Cup winner of the modern era when he willed his battle-weary body to victory at Addington yesterday.
And yes, he did smash the national 3200m record by
a remarkable 1.4 seconds, stopping the clock at a never before considered 3:57.7.
And he did all that after starting off a 15m backmark and sitting three wide for the last mile, meaning he realistically covered 30 metres more than many of his rivals.
So the statistics are a story in themselves. But they are not the real story.
What those numbers don't tell you is that Flashing Red is, to put in bluntly, physically stuffed.
After five years of using his body as a sledgehammer on the punishing Australian Grand Circuit, the warhorse is almost out of war.
Going into yesterday's 3200m thriller he hadn't won a race since the Auckland Cup in March and struggled to place in the weaker lead-up races. Red hadn't done any flashing for quite a while.
Just last week his champion driver Anthony Butt was keen to get off to drive stablemate Foreal in yesterday's Cup and punters followed suit, with Flashing Red, who won the race as favourite last season, sent out a loved but unwanted 22-1 outsider yesterday.
His trainers, Tim Butt and Phil Anderson, were last month forced to stop racing him as regularly as they wanted to and, in desperation, turned to beach training.
Flashing Red wasn't exactly ready for the scrapheap, but a torturous season and mediocre stud career loomed.
So once he had done yesterday what most considered impossible - fighting back after Monkey King put a length on him at the 150m mark - even the men who love Flashing Red could only shake their heads and laugh.
Because there was no magic formula, no secret ingredient to which this greatest of Cup wins can be attributed.
The reasons for the form turnaround are locked safely in the near bottomless abyss of Flashing Red's heart.
Somewhere in his chest beats the perfect example of the imponderables of racing, the magic that keeps the industry alive.
Because while racing is often about money, probabilities, scenarios and information, sometimes it is about the animal instinct to run as fast as possible for as long as possible.
Tim Butt, who trained New Zealand's greatest ever standardbred earner, Lyell Creek, was left struggling for an explanation of what he had just seen.
"It just comes down to heart," said Butt.
"There are lots of other things that go into winning a race like this and to be honest, he didn't have any of the ticks in the right boxes.
"But he didn't know that. He just went out there and ran as hard as he could. What else do you say?"
Nothing.
* Changeover's campaign could be over after his luckless fourth in the Cup.
The favourite was dragged back when Classic Cullen stopped at the 500m mark, losing crucial momentum before regathering himself to claw his way back into fourth.
"I was proud of him to do what he did because when they go that hard it is impossible to stop and start again," said trainer Geoff Small.
"But I don't want to take anything away from the winner. He was amazing and I am not sure we could have beaten him anyway."
Changeover will be an acceptor for Friday's $150,000 New Zealand Free-For-All and may start in the race is he draws well.
"But if he doesn't come through this race well, or draws badly, we might head home, give him a break and start again.
"He has a lot of options."
The same could be said of Monkey King, who although beaten was phenomenal yesterday.
After starting off the unruly he settled near last and was the only horse in the race to cover more ground than Flashing Red.
He swooped to the lead at the 200m mark and looked a certain winner before he was outstayed by a freak.
But there were far more positives out of the race than negatives for the speedster.
