The final date for the running of the cup is yet to be settled by the Prime Minister’s Racing Club in Canberra, the ruling body, but the date could be sooner rather than later.

The short-priced favourite is Sophie Mirabella, fresh from a spell and looking to overcome her ordinary form over the previous 12 years or so, including a shocker at her last start.

Her owners claim she has done well in the paddock and will be a different runner this time around.

And there will be a lot of punters who will bet big on her anyway, unworried by her form and more interested in her racing colours — which they will stay loyal to regardless of whichever runner their stable had decided to enter in the big race.

However, her final starting price will be decided by quite a few of the punters who were exasperated by Mirabella’s continued poor form after her previous preparations and who jumped ship the last time she faced up to second-priced favourite Cathy McGowan.

Those punters will again be closely watching Mirabella’s preparation in the run-up to the cup to determine if she has mended her ways and deserves to be favourite.

They will be particularly worried by her previous efforts at her home track and her owner’s apparent willingness to desert her local backers and set their sights on the richer, more glamorous races in Canberra.

They will also be eager to see if she has a real vision as to how she will run the race and what form she is likely to be able to deliver afterwards, if she becomes the Queen of Indi.

Some of the heavy hitters in her stable have been scathing in their judgment of McGowan’s form since her victory in the previous Indi Cup — and the small, independent stable that entered her in the last cup and in the upcoming one.

But keen judges have been impressed with McGowan’s track work out of the spotlight and feel she has delivered for her backers and the other punters on her home track.

Many punters are unlikely to be impressed if Mirabella and her connections adopt bullying tactics and if her connections in the Canberra racing industry make fleeting visits to the Indi Racing Club, praise their runner and bag the McGowan stable and its backers.

Most importantly, the local punters will be looking to see if it is possible for a leopard — or thoroughbred in this instance — to change her spots.

Certainly McGowan needs to change her attitude.

She won the previous race — and the hearts of many of the local punters — by running an honest, cheerful sort of race, unworried by the barrage of criticism from the Mirabella stable and its backers.

McGowan’s backers and those putting their hard-earned on her will be looking to her to put it to the more-fancied Mirabella and make her work hard for a victory, while at the same time ignoring the taunts of the favourite’s stable and backers.

McGowan’s stable has to put it to her opposition, make sure the Mirabella stable does have a vision and commitment for the future of her home track and is prepared to make an unbreakable commitment to it — and not later make excuses, such as they have run out of money.

Or blame the local media for the result of the cup, when all the media does is reflect the racing public’s opinion of the form of the runners.

Mirabella is a near certainty to take out the next Indi Cup, but, if she does not deliver on her stable’s commitments to the Indi Racing Club and instead concentrates on her future fortunes on the Canberra circuit, punters are going to demand she hand in her crown — even during her preparation for the following Indi Cup.

And as for the rest of the field — name your own price even if they do put in an honest effort.