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Can Who Shot Thebarman inspire a new wave of local stayers?

After three second-place finishes, Red Cadeaux was euthanised after the 2015 Melbourne Cup. (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
Roar Guru
9th November, 2014
6

Beyond the triumph and tragedy of this year’s Melbourne Cup there was another triumph that was overlooked.

Who Shot Thebarman ran third in Cup. The triumph?

Forget about locals winning. Overseas visitors have won the last five Cups and in 2011-12-13 filled all placings. The question wasn’t ‘’would an Australasian-bred horse win it again?” It was ‘’would a local run a place again?”

Who Shot Thebarman did; that was the triumph.

Pre-2010, he might have started favourite.

He’d won the 3200m Auckland Cup, won the 2540m Bart Cummings at Flemington by three lengths, had his pre-Cup hit-out when 13th, but beaten by four lengths in the Caulfield Cup on an unsuitable track.

Thebarman should be shouted lots of oats, barley and his favourite grasses for upholding the fragile honour of local stayers.

Forget about winning? Hope springs eternal. Next year… But billionaire owner-breeder Gerry Harvey has just about given up hope.

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He joked after Protectionist’s Cup there should be a Melbourne Cup just for the locals and another race for the overseas visitors. But Harvey had said something else earlier this year.

He’d said local trainers didn’t know how to train stayers (he didn’t need to except Bart Cummings. That was understood)

The response was mute. No outraged trainers defending local honour in response.

Is Harvey right?

Protectionist is an inapt name for the Cup winner, because there’s no question of protecting the locals by barring visitors.

The Cup is now and international event, but if the locals are to win again, it requires a rethink by the industry, and there’s no evidence of that happening.

The programming of the race clubs is simply a disgrace, almost inviting the visitors to win.

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Initially, the visitors did receive preferential treatment.

Desert Chill, a Brisbane Cup winner in 2005-2007, was considered not to have met the entry conditions for the 2007 Melbourne Cup.

A dual winner of the time-honoured 3200m Brisbane Cup, formerly a Group-One race and first run in 1866.

The Cup forever associated with Tulloch, who won it in his last race, carrying 9.12 in 1961 and beating his Sydney Cup victor Sharply, who carried just 8.4

The Cup has long lost its Group-One status and was downgraded to 2400m in 2008. It’s just another handicap.

The 3200m Perth Cup is now 2400m, the 2600m Metropolitan is now 2400m and has had its prizemoney reduced. It’s just another race for imported B and C grade stayers to win.

Even New Zealand, once considered the home of stayers, has reduced the Wellington Cup from 3200 to 2400m.

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And despite Auckland and Avondale Cup wins, Who Shot Thebarman had to win a Group Three in Australia just to get into the Cup.

What to do?

It’s forgotten that for its first century, legends in Australian racing were made in middle-distance and staying races.

Carbine, Phar Lap, Peter Pan, Rising Fast, Tulloch.

Sprinters and two-year-olds weren’t feted, weren’t who the breeding industry was directed at producing.

Australia followed the pattern of English racing, except that handicaps, from the Oakleigh Plate through to the Cups, were considered the No.1s. That made Auistralian racing unique.

A glamour sprinter in Todman and the 1957 Golden Slipper would change that.

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Bart Cummings has said the colonial-bred thoroughbred was once the toughest horse in the world. He’s said overseas shuttle stallions have changed that, contributing to faster but more brittle horses.

Zabeel and his son Savabeel, almost alone, have had the task of producing half-competitive local stayers. Almost.

Who Shot Thebarman contributed to another small triumph. He is the son of the deceased Yamanin Vital, an unfashionable stallion who was in turn a son of Sir Tristram.

Sir Patrick Hogan saw the bloodlines beyond Sir Tristram’s modest racetrack record, brought him to New Zealand, started a dynasty and created a breeding legend.

Nassipour was another import of modest attainment and sired the likes of Let’s Elope.

Gerry Harvey has millions Hogan never had, started the Magic Millions, has a racing-breeding empire.

He might put some money where his mouth is and have a word to Hogan; they might find some stallions, but then that would require patience, no guarantees and no quick return.

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But that’s a moral, not a financial choice, that isn’t Harvey’s responsibility alone to make.

Or perhaps he’s right about local trainers. His jibe might stir their competitive juices. Race clubs might restore alleged staying races to their former pre-eminence.

And horses might take porcine flight.

John McDonald is a former Fairfax journalist

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