The Caulfield Cup winner needs to be penalty exempt for the Melbourne Cup. Everyone believes so – everyone, except the Victorian Racing Club board.
The Melbourne Racing Club put in a proposal to the VRC, with the backing of key figures at Racing Victoria Limited, asking for permission to run the Caulfield Cup as a penalty-free race. On Friday, the VRC rejected the request.
It’s a crushing disappointment for MRC chairman Mike Symons. On Monday morning Symons spoke on RSN’s Racing Ahead, and the evidence supporting his proposal was overwhelming.
Today, however, Racing Victoria issued a statement saying it may have to take the matter into its own hands.
While every man and his horse are calling for the penalty to be removed, the VRC board decided the integrity of the Melbourne Cup was the highest priority.
The biggest incentive for the MRC to make its race penalty-free is to attract the best horses running around, and there’s no doubt a number of quality horses have bypassed the Caulfield Cup in recent years for fear of a weight increase.
Using 2013 as an example, Symons said horses such as Fiorente, Puissance de Lune and It’s A Dundeel would have chosen the Caulfield Cup over the Cox Plate, had the race been exempt.
Fiorente owner Luke Henderson made his feelings obvious on Twitter when he replied to a tweet from Symons in April.
“Pity we didn’t get to see him (Fiorente) in the Caulfield Cup,” Symons tweeted to Henderson Racing on April 6, post the horse’s retirement. “Make it penalty free and you will get the best horses,” Luke Henderson replied.
The tweet would have hurt Symons as much as it did reinforce his determination to battle the VRC.
At this stage, the VRC has won the battle. But the war is still yet to be fought.
In response to the proposal, VRC chairman Michael Burn told Racing Network it would be unfair for horses to receive re-handicaps for various races while the Caulfield Cup be left untouched.
It’s a mind-boggling position that the VRC holds. Comparing the Caulfield Cup with the Geelong Cup, for example, would be like comparing Black Caviar with Frankel.
Trainers undoubtedly use the Geelong Cup as a lead-up race to the Melbourne Cup, an opportunity to receive a penalty just so the horse can make the field. Prior to last year’s Geelong Cup, Ibicenco was 42nd in order of entry. Post the win, the 1kg penalty lifted him to 53kg, scraping him into the Melbourne Cup field.
Fawkner, in comparison, most likely would have gained a start in the Melbourne Cup prior to his 1.5kg Caulfield Cup-win penalty. He went onto finish six lengths back in sixth. Even without the penalty, he wouldn’t have won the Melbourne Cup.
RVL chief handicapper Greg Carpenter, who’s support was part of the MRC’s proposal, told Racing Ahead only two horses in the last 25 years would have won the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup doubles if they hadn’t been dealt a penalty – Taufan’s Melody (in 1998) and Paris Lane (1994).
Taufan’s Melody received a 2.5kg penalty and went onto finish a length behind the Melbourne Cup winner in fourth. Paris Lane received 3kgs and was subsequently beaten 1.8 lengths in second spot. They would have, of course, joined Ethereal (2001), Might and Power (1997), Doriemus (1995) and Let’s Elope (1991) who successfully completed the double, had they not received penalties.
Burn used Might and Power as an example for why penalties shouldn’t be scrapped, telling Racing Network it wouldn’t be good for the Melbourne Cup if a horse was “pitch forked in” to win. Might and Power was penalised 3.5kg for his seven-and-a-half length smashing of the Caulfield Cup, and went on to win the Melbourne Cup by a nose to Doremius.
But times have changed. The Melbourne Cup is a stronger race than it has ever been, while the Caulfield Cup field has failed to attract the same quality. The record of Caulfield Cup winners over the past 10 years in the Melbourne Cup is example of this – take away their penalties and they still wouldn’t have won.
Fiorente and Green Moon, the last two Melbourne Cup winners, both came through the Cox Plate in the lead-up to the Cup. The year before that, Dunaden ran in the Cup first-up.
Might and Power is regarded as a champion, and the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double was such an incredible feat. Had he not received the penalty, he would have won by more. In my eyes, it would have been just as incredible. Do we really care if there’s an odds-on favourite in the Melbourne Cup? No. Let’s see them win it first, before “pitch forking” them in.
Makybe Diva finished second in the 2004 Caulfield Cup, beaten a nose to Elvstroem, before going onto win the 2004 Melbourne Cup. It makes you wonder – did Glen Boss really want to win the Caulfield Cup? She had already won one Melbourne Cup, and any more than 55.5kg might have been a tough task for the five-year-old. Elvstroem received a 2.5kg penalty and finished the race in fourth. Makybe Diva won her second Cup, winning by 1.3 lengths to Vinnie Roe. From then on she raced only in weight-for-age and set-weight races, winning the 2005 Cox Plate before taking out her third Melbourne Cup carrying 58kg.
What was once regarded as a lead-up race to the Melbourne Cup, the Caulfield feature is now regarded as a grand final. Lloyd Williams targeted the Caulfield Cup with Fawkner last year, running him in the Melbourne Cup as an after-thought. His other Melbourne Cup runners – Seville (Cox Plate), Green Moon (Cox Plate), Masked Marvel (Cox Plate), Mourayan (MacKinnon) – ran in weight-for-age races exempt from penalties, while Sea Moon ran in the Herbert Power, also not liable for a penalty, before skipping the Caulfield Cup. That in itself is another cry for a penalty-free Caulfield Cup.
Racing fans want to see great horses win elusive racing doubles, such as Makybe Diva’s three-peat, Might and Power’s 1997 double or Lankan Rupee’s Oakleigh Plate-Newmarket Handicap-TJ Smith treble this year.
It would have been great to see Fiorente win the Caulfield Cup and go into the Melbourne Cup minus the penalty and win that too. No one is saying Fiorente would have won the Caulfield Cup, by the way. The ability to get a horse to peak twice is such a great effort in itself, hence why we shouldn’t be penalising Caulfield Cup winners.
Let’s test the very best to see if they can do it. Not give them a reason against trying. This decision should be based on what’s good for racing, not what’s good for one race.
In today’s statement, RV chief executive Bernard Saundry said he believes it’s time the best interests of the entire industry is made priority.
“Clubs have decided the conditions of entry of their feature races, long before Racing Victoria was instituted, but we believe that the time is right for changes to be made,” Saundry said.
The war will continue, but for the benefit of the entire industry, Racing Victoria must take the decision into its own hands and remove the penalty from the Caulfield Cup.
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