Let's return for 2010 with some positives:

Celebration 1

Damien Oliver won his fifth Lightning Stakes on Nicconi at Flemington last Saturday - his 87^th Group 1 victory.

While an achievement in its own right and another layer on a truly great career, perhaps the most significant number is "19", which is how many of these elite level races he has won since nearly snapping himself in two in a serious race fall at Moonee Valley a half decade ago. (It was March, 2005 to be specific.)

And the number within that number is 16, representing how many different trainers he rode for to win those Group 1s -perhaps a tribute to not only his form judgment but his networking skills.

On Saturday, watching him ply his craft with another perfectly timed run, it was easy for an observer to forget how serious and genuinely career-threatening that back injury was.

His ability to overcome the most personal grief in the most public way in the 2002 Melbourne Cup, winning on Media Puzzle, has now become the basis of a book and a movie, but in the case of a comeback from serious injury, the road for all sportsmen in such a situation is one of lonely graft, dedication and single-minded focus.

When Oliver was having a run of placings without victories in big races in the 2008 autumn, the best bet was that external pressures were never going to get the better of him.

As the old adage goes, form is temporary, but class is permanent, and with Ollie already a member of racing's Hall of Fame and still just 37 years of age, greatness is in full flight.

Let's celebrate it!

Celebration 2

For trainer David Hayes - the other half of the Nicconi story on Saturday and a fellow "Hall of Fame" member ­- it was a day that perhaps reminded the racing public of just what Hayes' hard-won reputation has been based on - that of winning major races, and performing brilliant resurrection jobs on imported gallopers. (If the training performance of getting Our Aqaleem to win at his first start for 131 weeks wasn't the equal of Nicconi's victory in the Lightning Stakes, it went down in a photo!)

 By collecting the first Group 1 of the Victorian calendar year, after winning the last Group 1 of 2009 with All American in the Emirates Stakes, the always positive Hayes can look forward to the big autumn features and put the quiet - by his standards - previous couple of months in the "off-season" file.

Celebration 3

Of course, Hayes' former stable jockey Craig Williams, who partnered Nicconi to Group 1 success in last year's The Galaxy (1100m) at Randwick's autumn carnival, could do no more than watch after parting ways with the stable early last spring.

However, perhaps history will judge the split as being good for both parties.

From a form perspective, the jockey endured a horror final three months of last year, racking up the sum total of 1 winner and 17 placings from 61 rides on Melbourne metropolitan tracks.

Following his Flemington double, his January stats read eight wins, with a further 20 placings, from 68 rides, suggesting that he's "back-in-town" from a form perspective.