This is the grand final equivalent for professional runners the nation over - and with international contenders dipping in. Olympians like Cathy Freeman, Tamsyn Manou and even Jamaican sprint superstar Asafa Powell have put Central Park in their calendars at Easter.

Not everything stays the same. We evolve and sometimes we need to move on.

A back-flip on bookies at Central Park is a huge indicator of a wider societal problem in sport that we cannot seem to shake.

The lure to beat the odds continues to infiltrate everything including from how many couples in Married at First Sight (MAFS for those in the know) will end up together and whether any lyric on Taylor Swift's new album The Tortured Poet's Department will feature her beau's name, Travis Kelce.

More than two-thirds of Australian adults who regularly bet online on sports meet the criteria for at-risk gambling, the latest online betting snapshot from the Australian Institute of Family Studies shows.

AFL is back and so too are the seemingly normalised odds reports read by AFL nice guys in a segment akin to a live weather cross. This is not okay.

Bookies at the Stawell Gift, with their big boards declaring the odds for finals have long been a feature in the outer at Easter and typically associated only with this professional handicap meet.

Australia's most illustrious and richest footrace had betting scratched in late February, blocking more than a hundred years' tradition. Even Stawell Gift chairman Murray Emerson told ABC Melbourne earlier this month that bookie numbers on site had dwindled in the past 10 to 15 years.

The ban had been to better come in line with the Victoria Gambling and Casino Control Commission's stop on betting on all under-19 sports competitions, handed down in August 2023.

But betting is back - kinda.

Odds will instead now be available for adults in all open age races and if a junior wins, placings get messy and under the bookies eyes only will go to the next adult.

Ballarat's Grace O'Dwyer was 15 years old in 2015 when she became the first athlete to win the Stawell Women's Gift 120-metre handicap on parity with the men. Stablemate Tahlia Martin was also 15 when she won the race a year later.

O'Dwyer was edged out by Wangaratta teenager Bella Pasquali in the 2023 women's final.

They were children pulling on the sash and with every right to be out in that field. We should be celebrating their achievements not trying to focus on our "winner".

Athlete exploitation by bookies is not limited to children and has been an issue former Western Bulldogs captain Easton Wood was particularly vocal about in his playing career.

Wood became increasingly concerned when talking to young fans whose turn of phrase was more about "who's the favourite" rather than "who are you cheering for" when talking footy.

He was perturbed by the AFL's extensive gambling education while directly benefitting from sports betting advertising dollars poured into the game.

Stawell Gift is full of bookies' stories. Perhaps the most notorious plot was in 1988 with the old identical twin trick with his runners Scott and Paul Antonich.

Previously a Gift favourite, Scott had been starting to show form in a comeback year. On Easter Monday, Paul sauntered into the bookies yard getting stuck into meat pies and a cold beer. His brother's price blew out and they collected more than $30,000 on the win.

Amusing but so much has changed in the almost-40 years since.

Our values should have changed.

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