With the spring just around the corner, the emergence of international raiders on the Sydney and Melbourne Spring carnivals is about to begin.
The feel good stories of an Aussie battler winning our feature races and or especially the Melbourne Cup can almost be forgotten about this year with the largest ever international contingent set to compete in our main events.
Even our leading trainers such as Chris Waller, Gai Waterhouse and Darren Weir are pinning their hopes and dreams on purchased International horses.
Sure, ‘The Aussie’ Green Moon won last year’s Melbourne Cup but how truly Australian was the victory? Green Moon was bred in Ireland and stared its career in England before heading down under in 2011.
The 2013 Melbourne Cup favourite Puissance De Lune has had a couple of campaigns in Australia but once again bred in Ireland, raced in France, before being specifically bought to target the spring riches.
Lloyd Williams will have a strong hand again this year headed by import Sea Moon who was an impressive winner at Royal Ascot in 2012. So has the boat sailed on Aussie horses dominating our spring?
Unless changes are made, the answer is yes.
Problems
1. Australian horses are always going to be stronger in sprint events and weaker in staying events compared to the rest of the world if the majority of our racing season is scheduled around sprint-middle distance races
2. What is the incentive for a local trainers to breed and then aim a horse towards the staying events when the greater/majority of the prize money is set aside for the sprint events, especially for the two and three year olds?
3. Do we breed to race or race to breed? Our next superstars are being retired at three.
Solutions
1. Reduce the number of sprinting events that are on the racing calendar.
2. Increase the prize money for staying events outside of the spring majors….particular the Sydney Autumn.
3. Weekly staying events for Metro meetings.
4. Improve staying bloodlines – lure Internationals to stay after spring campaigns for breeding.
5. Racing scheme to reward local trainers for contesting staying events.
6. More emphasis on racing not breeding – how about we see a horse reach its potential before it retires?
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