On Tuesday, the Sydney-based Australian Turf Club made changes to its Spring Carnival program that could deny harbour city racegoers the opportunity to watch the best staying colts next season.
The Spring Champion Stakes (Group 1, 2000m, three-year olds) has been moved back a week. It will be run at Randwick as the stand-alone feature on the weekend after Epsom Super Saturday.
This is a significant move because the Spring Champion will now be run on the same day, probably in the same hour, as the Caulfield Guineas (Group 1 1600m, three-year olds).
That means the only two Group 1 middle-distance races that cater for male three-year olds in the spring will be run on October 12.
Furthermore, for the first time since 1977/78 – which was the last season that Sydney’s Rosehill Guineas and AJC Derby were run in the spring – Sydney will host a Group 1 race during the heart of Melbourne’s Spring Carnival.
It’s a controversial move but one that shouldn’t be automatically detested.
The Spring Carnival program, as brilliant as it is, is yet to be perfected, especially when one turns their focus away from the staying features.
Sadly, it hasn’t been perfected here.
Because, like an out-of-form apprentice jockey (probably a four-kilogram claimer), the ATC has pulled the wrong rein.
The changes to the program have happened because the ATC want to make their flagship three-year old race of the spring, the $1m Golden Rose (Group 1, 1400m), better.
They want to entice VRC Derby (Group 1, 2500m, three-year olds) aspirants and staying colts to use the Golden Rose as a kick-off point for their main goals later in the spring.
How can the ATC entice staying colts to the Golden Rose?
The ATC believed they could make the Golden Rose more appealing for staying three-year olds if they created a four-week break between the Golden Rose and the Spring Champion Stakes.
Until now, there was only a three-week break between the two Group 1s. That meant if a trainer wanted to run his horse in both races, that horse was required to make the mammoth leap from 1400 to 2000m, almost certainly without the prospect of a run in between. That’s too much to ask.
By establishing a four-week break, the ATC have made it easier for horses to make the leap from 1400 to 2000m because the natural stepping-stone race, the Gloaming Stakes (Group 2, 1800m, three-year olds) is now run two weeks after the Golden Rose.
Up to now, there was only a one-week break between the Golden Rose and the Gloaming.
The ATC needed to find an extra week in their program to make these program changes possible.
They had three options:
• Start their Spring Carnival a week earlier so the Spring Champion remains a week before the Caulfield Guineas;
• Run the Spring Champion at the end of the Sydney spring as the last Group 1 and on the same day as the Caulfield Guineas (which they did), or;
• Scrap the idea altogether because it’s a logistical nightmare.
The plan is flawed because these changes to the program are not guaranteed to entice the best staying three-year olds to the Golden Rose, a race which has attracted strong fields in recent history anyway.
The best staying three-year-olds are aimed at the VRC Derby (worth $1.5m), which is run seven weeks after the Golden Rose. Seven weeks is a long time in racing; it’s almost an entire spring preparation.
And, as is so often the case, the horses that fight out the Derby finish are late-emerging stayers that only show Group 1 ability – required to run competitively in the Golden Rose – once they race over longer distances.
There’s no guarantee a staying three-year old would run well in the Golden Rose. That’s why it’s pointless for the ATC to be making such important changes to the program just to entice stayers to the Golden Rose.
The issue of the Spring Champion being run on the same day as the Caulfield Guineas isn’t the biggest problem.
Last year, the Spring Champion and Caulfield Guineas were separated by a week.
That meant the blue riband three-year-olds All Too Hard and Pierro, who ran the Guineas quinella, were cut-off from the Derby types (It’s A Dundeel, who won the Champion the week prior) by the program. The racing industry can live with that.
With the changes, the program is now flawed because the Spring Champion falls an awkward three weeks (instead of what used to be four weeks) short of the VRC Derby.
It increases the likelihood of the Derby favourites bypassing Sydney altogether and completing their entire Derby preparation in Melbourne.
If a Derby trainer runs their horse in the Spring Champion they will either have to race in the Derby three-weeks fresh, back-up seven days after the Spring Champion in the Norman Robinson (Group 3, 2000m) on Caulfield Cup Day (unlikely because of the travel involved on the back-up) or enjoy a two-week break onto the AAMI Vase (Group 2, 2040m) on Cox Plate Day before backing up over 2500m in the Derby the following Saturday.
It’s not ideal and doesn’t suit every horse, especially those who shouldn’t be raced on the back-up.
Anthony Cummings, trainer of early Derby hopeful Drago, has expressed same. The changes in program don’t suit Drago.
The path Drago takes to the Derby is now completely unknown. There’s a chance that Sydney racing may now be denied the opportunity to see this exciting colt race in his home city this spring.
How frustrating would that be!
There’s a lesson to be learnt here: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
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