Six points to give you a goal of looking forward to this years Spring Racing Carnival

1) So You Think he's a champion?

Last spring Glen Boss was one degree of separation from two Flemington statues, as the jockey forever associated with the immortal three-peat Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva, teamed up with the living icon Bart Cummings and his then-promising young colt So You Think in the Cox Plate.

What followed was two minutes and 3.98 seconds of outrageous daring and jaw-dropping sustained speed in an all the way victory that suggested that So You Think was entitled to be ranked alongside other great three year old victors of the race in Taj Rossi, Surround, Red Anchor & Octagonal.

Well, after his winning return to racing in last week's Memsie Stakes, the doubts are erased.

If the horse remains healthy he is a future Hall of Fame member because he is THAT good.

2) Bart!

At time of writing the great man is recuperating at home after suffering a fractured pelvis from a fall in his home, and thankfully the reports from his son Anthony is that he is recovering well.

82 years young, apart from So You Think, he heads into the spring with Queensland Derby winner Dariana, last year's VRC Oaks winner Faint Perfume, dual Group 1 winner Sirmione, Australian Guineas winner Rock Classic, triple Group 1 placed Moatize, and emerging stayers Brightnight & Precedence.

Maybe the best is still in front of him!

3) Ollie, Ollie, Ollie... Oi, Oi, Oi!!!

22 years after riding his first winner as a 16 year old in his native Perth, 21 years after riding his first Melbourne city winner, 20 years after riding his first Group 1 win, (for Bart himself) 19 years after his first Victorian jockeys premiership, 18 years after his first of four Caulfield Cups, 15 years after winning his first Melbourne Cup, 14 years after winning the first of six Scobie Breasley Medals, 13 years after the first of his two Cox Plates, eight years after possibly the most emotional moment in Australian sporting history when winning the Melbourne Cup on Media Puzzle, five years after nearly snapping himself in two at Moonee Valley in a serious fall that badly damaged his back and left him sidelined for 15 months and three years since completing racing's "Grand Slam" by adding the Golden Slipper to his CV, Damien Oliver racked up his 88th Group 1 win last Saturday on Toorak Toff in the Golden Rose.

His "stock selection" ability is also first class, as he isn't aligned to any particular stable.

According to figures supplied by Danny Power of Slattery Media, since his return from serious injury in mid-2006, Oliver has won twenty Group 1 races for 16 different stables.

He is still at the absolute peak of his powers, and a reminder that sometimes greatness isn't in a history book but it is being played out in front of you.

4) The Bushie

Every good spring carnival needs a battler-from-the-bush tale.

Whether the connections are scrapping for their next feed, or own enough farming land to feed three meals a day to South East Asia, if the horse comes from more than an hour's float trip from the CBD, the owners are terrorized by everyone with a camera looking to do a colour piece featuring a nag galloping on a beach or a dirt road.

We've seen She's Archie, On A Jeune, Leica Falcon and Alcopop fall just short of the mark this decade, but the Warrnambool trained Moudre could be the one that rips a big Cup away from the city-slickers and international raiders.

He is currently the $10 favourite for the Caulfield Cup, but the odds-on certainty is that the 12 Apostles get a run in a trackwork story at some stage...

5) Lloyd!

Every yin needs a yang, so the opposite of a bush-battler tale could well be Lloyd Williams realizing his obsession of winning the 150th Melbourne Cup.

The former chairman of Crown Casino and property group Hudson Conway now has his own training facility at Mount Macedon.

He's armed with a combination of proven big-race performers like Efficient, C'est La Guerre and Zipping, emerging stars Linton & Rundle, as well as imported and highly credentialed gallopers Muir, Martial Law, Alandi, Mourayan, Grand Ducal & Imposing.

Get the feeling he knows first-hand that the reason that the "House wins" is because the numbers are in its favour?

6) Hay List

It aint all about the stayers!

He's the fastest runner out of Perth since you-know-who beat the booze bus.

"Racetrack" Ralphy Horowitz is a full-time racing analyst for private clients and media commentator for Sport 927. He is a former producer at 3AW, SEN, The Footy Show, & Sunday Footy Show.