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There’s still more than two months until the Melbourne Cup, but already there is uproar over the likely number of internationally-trained runners in this year’s race.
The queen of Sydney racing, Gai Waterhouse, has been quoted as saying the qualification clauses are skewed for overseas horses.
“Unfortunately, the way the Melbourne Cup is these days, it is increasingly harder for the local horses to get in the race,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
“It has become an overseas affair now and that is terribly unfair. The qualifying clauses are completely wrong. The VRC should realy seriously look at it.”
Please!
Waterhouse is one of racing’s best assets, but her attitude towards the globalisation of the Melbourne Cup is indicative of an inherent problem among the racing community – the inability to accept or address change.
The parochialism of Australians towards the race that stops the nation is something which needs to be addressed, hastily.
Yes, it has become an overseas affair, but purely because the Australian racing and breeding industry has spent too much time focusing on speed. It has always been one of the ironies of racing – the paradox of our greatest race focusing on stamina in a speed-driven environment.
Perhaps it is human nature to chase the dream of a quick payday – races like the $2m Magic Millions Classic, the $m Blue Diamond Stakes and the $3.5m Golden Slipper are not to be sneezed at – but if that is the focus of most owners, then quite naturally our long distance stocks will diminish.
This is not something that will change overnight, but with an influx of staying stallions emerging on the market, the tide is slowly beginning to turn.
In the meantime, we have to accept that international trainers are extremely keen to target our great race. There is no doubt now that it is the world’s premier race beyond the classic distance of 2400m, incredible given it is contested under handicap conditions.
International interest in the Melbourne Cup is a credit to the Victoria Racing Club and economically it is a sign of the strength of the Australian dollar. In American dollar terms it is currently the world’s richest race on turf, although currency fluctuations see this change from time to time.
Carnivals around the world compete to get the best horses to their premier races. In Dubai, horses are subsidised for their World Cup carnival in March – connections are not out of pocket at all.
In Singapore there was genuine disappointment that Australia wasn’t represented on their international night in May. Royal Ascot uses international competition to assert its position as a world-class carnival, while the French would be disappointed if the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe was contested by only French horses.
Yet it seems Australians want the best horses to compete – as long as they are Australians.
A common argument bandied about is the international horses are given unfairly high weights to allow them to make the final cut. This logic is baseless. If a horse is weighted too far above its rating, then surely it will be uncompetitive – rendering the trip a waste of time and money.
Granted, mistakes have been made in the past. For example, Saptapadi was given too much weight last year – and so it proved, as he finished 16th behind Dunaden. However, he kept out Bauer – another international – so it’s not as though Australian horses were disadvantaged.
Furthermore, last year the Australian horses were simply not good enough.
The Caulfield Cup was, at the time, seen as one of the weakest editions of the race in living memory. While the form out of the race has stacked up quite well, it is still likely that without the internationals, the Melbourne Cup would have been rather weak too.
If we exclude the Australian-trained horses, Lucas Cranach would have beaten Niwot, Unusual Suspect and At First Sight. Of those, only Niwot began his career in Australia. Lucas Cranach debuted in Germany, Unusual Suspect was a Group 1 winner in the United States while At First Sight finished second in one of the world’s biggest races, the Epsom Derby.
It has been argued, for example, English Group 3 winners are given too much weight, while not enough weight is given to Australian Group 3 winners. The simple fact of the matter is that not all races are equal.
It makes no sense whatsoever that, say, a Launceston Cup winner like Prevailing should get a similar weight to Mount Athos, the winner of the Geoffrey Freer Stakes two weeks ago.
Mount Athos beat last year’s Group 1 English St Leger quinella, Masked Marvel (fourth) and Brown Panther (second), as well as the likes of Modun, who ran in last year’s Melbourne Cup.
Prevailing beat Hobart Cup winner Geegees Blackflash and the enigmatic Fieldmaster. This trio would struggle to perform in most other Group 3s in Australia.
Logically, a horse should receive a weight based on how it has rated. There would be a wide space between what Mount Athos rated in beating Group 1 winners as opposed to Prevailing who beat restricted horses, so the weights reflect that accordingly.
If anything, Australian horses may receive too much weight as opposed to their English counterparts.
Some in the English media last week called the Melbourne Cup “the world’s greatest race” – amazing given their pride in the Epsom Derby as well as races like the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
It may not be the world’s greatest race in terms of quality, but there is no doubt it attracts the best atmosphere – both in Melbourne and nationwide.
But it is also the world’s most intriguing race with a number of storylines every year. There is rarely a short priced favourite. Each horse has a chance to win. It is, without a doubt, one of the most exciting races to watch.
The internationals have added another dimension to the race. Instead of decrying their involvement, we should celebrate the fact it has made our great race even greater.
As David Hayes famously said after Vintage Crop’s historic win in 1993, the internationals will not win it every year. There will come a time when the Australians strike back. The next year Hayes won the Melbourne Cup for Australia, albeit with the imported Jeune.
Who knows? Australia may wrest the Melbourne Cup back from France this year. It shapes, already, as an epic contest – one which truly benefits from the participation of horses worldwide.
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