The Melbourne Racing Club faces a serious conflict of interest as it sits down to determine the final composition of this year's Caulfield Cup field.
At present three horses are competing for the final two spots in the 18 horse field and one of those - Queensland galloper Ice Chariot - is owned by MRC committeeman Kevin O'Brien.
While O'Brien has excused himself from the selection process - ahead of the announcement of the field on Tuesday morning - if Ice Chariot is included in the field it puts the rest of the MRC committee in an awkward position and will bring into question whether it favoured one of its own at the expense of the two other runners.
Making this already tricky situation even more complicated is the fact the two other runners that are jostling with Ice Chariot for a spot in the field come from the stables of none other than the biggest name in Australian racing in Bart Cummings and the biggest name in world racing - the powerful Godolphin stable.
Can you just imagine the outcry if Cummings' horse Viewed or Godolphin's horse All the Good is excluded from the final field of Australia's third biggest race behind the Melbourne Cup and Cox Plate at the expense of a horse owned by a member of the MRC committee?
That is not to say that Ice Chariot, the winner of the 2006 Queensland Derby and placed in his past three starts all in group class in Sydney, does not deserve to be in the field or that the MRC committee will decide the outcome of the final field with anything less than the utmost integrity.
But if Ice Chariot is included in the field at the expense of Viewed or All The Good, the punting public will be entitled to ask why?
After all the six-year-old gelding's credentials don't look as strong as the other two and not just because he hasn't won for more than 12 months and is trained by the little-known Toowoomba trainer Ron Maund rather than the incomparable Cummings or Godolpin's Saeed bin Suroor.
Cummings' horse Viewed - which lost his chance to automatically earn his place in the field when scratched at the barrier during Saturday's Yalumba Stakes, won the Group 2 Brisbane Cup just three starts back, a race run over the same 2400 metre distance as Saturday's Caulfield Cup.
And All The Good is a last start winner in England of the Newburgh Handicap at Newbury, one of the country's premier handicap events and as Godolphin's racing manager Simon Crisford pointed out "has flown halfway around the world to be here."
Of course the trio, who are all currently equal 17th in order of entry (provided that Pompeii Ruler, Anamato and C'est La Guerre don't run as expected), could gain a start if trainer Pat Hyland elects to save his gun mare Zarita (currently equal ninth in order of entry) for Saturday week's Cox Plate at Moonee Valley at the expense of running in this Saturday's Caulfield Cup.
But if Zarita starts then the MRC faces a tough decision and one made all the more difficult (not to mention controversial if Ice Chariot gains a start) by the fact that one of its committee members owns one of the horses involved.