Natalie Rasmussen and Blacks A Fake, along with Tony Brett and his Group 1 winner Black Enforcer and myself and Apache Cat advertise the three codes of racing to millions of passing cars around the State annually. Natalie and Blackie line up in their fifth Inter Dominion Grand Final on Sunday at Menangle, Tony Brett scored his third Queensland "Greyhound of the Year" winner last weekend - and Apache Cat was only retired late last year after an illustrious career.

When the mobile gathers pace next Sunday afternoon at Menangle for the Grand Final of the 2010 Inter Dominion, to signify that the field is about to be despatched, all devotees of any code of thoroughbreds, harness, or greyhounds should be tuned into Sky Channel. Why is that? Well, put simply, they will have the opportunity to witness an event so rare, that it is akin to Haley’s Comet coming into view above of the Earth, which occurs only once every seventy six years.

You see as Blacks A Fake scores up behind gate 3 of that mobile on Sunday, he will become the first horse since Caduceus to have run in five Inter Dominion Grand Finals. For his part Caduceus won the Inter Dominion in Sydney over 13 furlongs and 98 yards (about 2690 metres) in 1960, so that means it’s obviously 50 years since that pacer was seen strutting his stuff, out on the racetrack of dreams. Logically if we have to wait another 50 years to witness another horse like he, or Blacks A Fake making it to their fifth Inter Dominion Grand Final, well most of us sadly won’t be here to witness the rare event. Caduceus ran third in the 1956 Inter Dominion Grand Final, also run in Sydney, when from his 36-yard (about 33 metres) handicap, he ran a head and one length (3 metres) third to the Eric Rothacker driven Gentleman John and the Merv Adams steered Mineral Spring, both pacers having started off 12 yards (about 11 metres). Whilst Caduceus contested the following four Inter Dominion Grand Finals after 1956, he couldn’t run another place until his fifth attempt – which he won.

Blacks A Fake's five straight Inter Dominion Grand Finals will culminate in Sunday’s Menangle race, but his first Inter Dominion Grand Final resulted in a win in Hobart in 2006 over 2579 metres. He followed that up with victories at Globe Derby in Adelaide over 2645 metres in 2007, and Moonee Valley in Melbourne over 2065 metres in 2008, before he ran what I’d call “an unlucky second” in the 2009 Grand Final at Parklands, on the Gold Coast. I felt he got “unnecessarily softened up” in the run last year at Parklands – and I’m not talking through my kick, as I didn’t have a bet in the race, but in any event, that’s just a personal view.

Blacks A Fake’s trainer/driver Natalie Rasmussen who celebrated a birthday just yesterday, could sure have a big week if the champion pacer can win the great race. But win, lose or draw, the combination has already covered themselves in glory as what Blacks A Fake will achieve on Sunday is akin to some of the great feats that our equine and canine athletes have performed in the history of racing in the former convict colony of Australia.

I was only 5-years-old when Caduceus ran in his fifth Inter Dominion Grand Final, so that meant nothing to me obviously, but if you asked me to pick out one athlete across each racing code for special mention – and whose achievements had to be so rare that like Haley’s Comet they may come around every 76 years, I name the extraordinary effort of Makybe Diva to win three Melbourne Cup’s as the best I’ve seen in the thoroughbred world, in greyhound racing the wonderful staying greyhound Bold Trease who won four consecutive Sandown Cups over 715 metres between 1986 and 1989 inclusive gets my vote - and in the harness racing world Blacks A Fake’s making five Inter Dominion Grand Finals pales into insignificance any other harness racing achievement that I’ve seen. The mere fact that each and every one of these aforesaid three great racing athletes have been able to peak at the same time each year, as if on command, speaks volumes for both them and the people whose name is listed as their trainer.

This website has covered the life journey of Blacks A Fake from its infancy, but at all times I have never bothered asking Natalie Rasmussen more than one question – and that was would she allow me to use a photo I took of she and Blacks A Fake on a billboard to be circulated around the State. She told me she’d “be honoured…. as I read Justracing all the time”, so I’ve left her alone throughout Blackie’s career, as whilst she has been gracious with her time to other outlets, I think people like her must get driven mad by media people annoying the hell out of them – and why would she need another person annoying her? In any event, God gave me a pair of eyes with which to see, so I am totally comfortable with being able to make my own independent observations about individual performances.

From a personal perspective, my wife and I and our family have lived in the Ipswich area for the last 34 years. A kid named Natalie Rasmussen lived a 10-minute drive away when she was growing up with her affable parents, Vic and Cheryl, on acreage at Rosewood, just outside Ipswich, but that young kid sure did grow up to become a great mountain climber – consistently scaling the summit of the harness racing’s Mount Everest with ease, in the dog-eat-dog world of racing. She’ll raise her flag again at the top of the mountain next Sunday for the fifth time, by making another Inter Dominion Grand Final – and even if she runs last, that’s fine, as she and her great pacer have nothing left to prove. Needless to say the duo carry with them the best wishes of all racing followers, as I’m sure even if the punters who back something else in the race have to be beaten, they will be hoping it is Blacks A Fake who beats them. When the banner on the left was put up on this website a month ago for Nat and Blackie, they were $10 each way fixed odds in the Inter Dominion Grand Final. They are now just one third of those odds after their track record run last Saturday night.

A feature article I wrote way back in 2007 about Blacks A Fake’s part owner Trevor Titcomb, entitled “Trevor Titcomb seduced Lady Luck at his last roll of the dice”, with accompanying photos, can be read by clicking HERE.