I’M counting down to Black Opal day at Thoroughbred Park. This is our Melbourne Cup day in Canberra.

Last year the Canberra Racing Club’s committee made the bold call to combine their two feature race days into one. It was a rip-roaring success. Again, this year we’ve got Black Opal, Canberra Cup, the National Sprint and the Canberra Guineas on the one program. It’s a racing purist’s dream. Add to that the fashions and a live performance by Evermore and this is huge.

But then a fortnight after Black Opal, we’re set to see history at Thoroughbred Park. On March 23 we get a fully fledged Saturday afternoon TAB meeting, which in Canberra is itself a rarity. But the history making aspect is that the six thoroughbred races will be complemented by three harness races. For the first time, we’re going to see harness racing at Thoroughbred Park.

The gallops will be on the grass track, the trots on the synthetic.

Greg Nugent, from the Canberra Harness Racing Club, told me that the three races will be contested over 1900 metres racing in a clockwise direction. So we’ll see a mobile start in front of the grandstand before doing a full circuit.

“We’ve had one trial over there so far and the drivers have loved the cushion track,” Nugent said. “The wheels of the carts don’t dig in, which was our biggest concern.”

At some stage it’s envisaged that all three racing codes will come together permanently at the one venue in Canberra and this experiment in March will go part the way of testing those waters. If and when we do get that three-code venue in Canberra it’ll have to be built from scratch and I know that Greg Nugent and others have some very bold visions including a straight 1200-metre track for harness racing.

The barrier draw would become irrelevant and even on a synthetic surface, winning horses could record some stunning mile rates.

There’s a lot of water to pass under the bridge before we get our all-codes racing venue in Canberra, but when we do, put me down as a vote for a straight 1200-metre, harness-racing track.