Racing: The best pacer with the worst options

Sometimes being the best is simply not good enough.

And that is the real problem facing Auckland Reactor in the Interdominion Final tonight.

In a series where he has turned into an equine headline machine, Auckland Reactor has left little doubt he is the best pacer in Australasia.

And potentially one of the best ever produced in this part of the world.

He will start a warm favourite tonight and if he gets the right run he should win.

But overcoming a bad draw on the tight Parklands track is far more difficult than achieving the same task at Alexandra Park or Addington.

From the outside of the second line, Auckland Reactor will either have to burn early to get handy or sit back and then hope to be in the perfect place three wide starting the last lap.

This may be the wrong race to try for either option.

In New Zealand, when the champ moves, rivals get out of his way.

In his two biggest challenges this season - the New Zealand Free-For-All and the Auckland Cup - he was able to get to the parked out position or lead when he was asked to.

Tonight, if as expected I Am Sam is sitting parked outside stablemate leader Blacks A Fake, any move by Auckland Reactor could be repelled.

And that risks leaving him three wide for half the race.

Around Parklands that could cost him three lengths on every bend, putting him at a 10-length disadvantage compared with Blacks A Fake, who will be on the marker pegs.

There seems little doubt Auckland Reactor is now a better horse than Blacks A Fake. But is he that much better?

And if he sits back in the field it would only take the wrong horse to move in front of him and start to struggle and Auckland Reactor would have to come four wide, almost impossible on this track.

To win he will need more than the biggest motor and the fastest legs. He will need something he has rarely relied on. Luck.

Changeover and Blacks A Fake may not be better horses, but tonight they could be better bets.