Saturday’s Caulfield Cup is further proof the race has progressed from a mere lead-up to the Melbourne Cup to become a target race on its own.
While it may not be a Caulfield Cup for the ages, it is a highly competitive race with many winning hopes.
With half the Melbourne Cup field expected to include hit-and-run international visitors, this is a crucial race to determine whether to push on to the race that stops the nation.
However, it is also notable for another reason – the dearth of Kiwi stayers in the field.
This year, there is only one New Zealand-trained galloper in the field – Silent Achiever for Roger James – while Mr O’Ceirin is the only Kiwi-bred to line up.
They have been eclipsed by Irish-bred imports, with five – Glencadam Gold, Kelinni, Moriarty, My Quest For Peace and Julienas – to start. A sixth, Nicky Henderson’s Forgotten Voice, needs a scratching in order to gain a start.
Just 10 years ago, in Mummify’s Caulfield Cup in 2003, there were four New Zealand-trained stayers – Distinctly Secret (3rd), Honor Babe (8th), Hail (15th) and Oarsman (17th) – while Zagalia (6th) was the only other Kiwi-bred.
And five years ago, in the 2008 Caulfield Cup won by All The Good, there were three stayers who represented trainers from across the Tasman – Nom du Jeu (2nd), Red Ruler (6th) and Boundless (11th) – while Master O’Reilly (7th), Maldivian (9th), Guillotine (14th) and Fiumicino (17th) were bred in New Zealand.
To be fair, the Kiwis were also supposed to be represented by Sangster (spelled after finishing last in the Turnbull Stakes) and Quintessential (retired after a lacklustre track gallop on Saturday). But still, the fact Kiwi-breds are sparse on the ground is indicative of the shift in recent years towards European imports.
So why have New Zealand stayers fallen out of favour?
For many years, the best source of staying blood for Australians was found in New Zealand, and every trainer who wanted a stayer – from Bart Cummings down – would head to the Karaka yearling sales in earnest every year.
They would also examine hours and hours of race footage, looking for the next superstar.
But the New Zealand breeding industry in recent years has looked to Asia to survive and prosper, with big money from Hong Kong and Singapore usurping offers from Australia.
In addition, the quality of racing in New Zealand, particularly amongst the older brigade, seems to have dropped significantly, perhaps as a result of prizemoney in New Zealand dropping markedly.
After their three year old season, the best gallopers either cross the Tasman or are sold to Hong Kong.
The Spring Classic, formerly the Kelt Capital Stakes, was one such example of the poor depth in New Zealand recently.
A race which had been won by the likes of Shez Sinsational, Jimmy Choux, Wall Street, Princess Coup and Xcellent in the last decade alone looked rather weak this year in comparison.
The race was won by Ransomed, a horse who had never looked like measuring up to weight for age in the past. In fact, the only horses who looked genuine weight for age contenders were Nashville, who beat Ocean Park in the Haunui Farm Classic earlier this year, and Survived, who started favourite in the Queensland Derby won by Hawkspur.
For a race with such a top honour roll, it was further proof that New Zealand is perhaps no longer where it used to be on the pecking order.
In the end, the move away from Kiwi stayers can perhaps be attributed to a New Zealander – Sydney’s champion trainer Chris Waller.
His move to buy cheap European gallopers to conquer Sydney’s staying races was a remarkable success, with almost every horse purchased from Europe winning at least one race in Australia.
While trainers like David Hayes and Lee Freedman had been bringing out top-notch imports for years, it was Waller who proved it was possible to buy winners with a limited budget.
Therefore, it may be ironic that of Waller’s four runners in the Caulfield Cup, his two Australian breds (Hawkspur and Royal Descent) head the market while his two imports (Moriarty and Kelinni) are big odds.
For the Kiwis, though, it may be a case of quality as opposed to quantity in this year’s Caulfield Cup. Silent Achiever’s form has been better than it looks on paper and she looks a top chance of giving New Zealand their first Caulfield Cup since 2001.
sheek
Roar Guru
Yeah Scott, I understand that. October (France & England)-November US & Japan)-December (Hong Kong) are the months when northern hemisphere countries run their 'grand finals', so the competition is intense. However, that's more reason for Australia & NZ to work hard at developing their own carnivals. Our 'bare bones' are as good if not better than elsewhere. We need to lift the quality of our breeding & return to the wonderful variety (distances & types) we once had.
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
The problem with the Spring Carni is that it clashes with major races in France, USA and HK, nit to mention Champion Day in the UK sat http://www.sportinglife.com/other-sports/news/article/465/8978615/champions-day-video-preview
sheek
Roar Guru
Scott, It might be time to do away with the penalty. It's a concept from another era anyway. In the past, it was a fallback position for the handicapper to screw any horse that had snuck under his guard. With today's compressed handicap weights, you wonder if it's required any longer.
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
Justin, Sheek, I like the Jan 1 initiative but we have too many fuddy duddies so forget it. But they do need to do something. Too many trainers are using the Caulfield Cup either as a lead up or not game to risk a pen for the melb Cup, which weakens this great race. Sydney have a great opportunity to fight back and gain some lost market share on Vic Racing. Moving the BMW or putting on another is a good idea. The BMW is Autumn is normally a small field anyway.
sheek
Roar Guru
Justin, I'm still evolving my suggestion of what would happen if Australian adopted the northern hemisphere of January first as horse's birthday. It would make the Melbourne Spring carnival even bigger, as well as making the Sydney spring carnival almost as big leadfing into it. The autumn carnivals would generally concentrate on sprints & miles (as they mostly do now), with the spring carnivals concentrating more on staying races & 2 & 3yos. The more I think of it, the better it might be for Australian racing.
sheek
Roar Guru
Scott, You would remember that the VRC used to run the CB Fisher Plate over 1.5 miles on the Saturday after the Melbourne Cup. In its heyday it was well-represented by freshly minted Cup winners, established wfa champions & those horses seeking redemption. Going back to my early years of first watching racing, in 1966, Galilee demonstrated his newfound class by beating wfa champion Tobin Bronze in the Fisher after securing the Caulfield-Melbourne Cups double. In 1967, equal cup favourite General Command overcame his disappointing 6th in the cup by beating established wfa performer Winfreux in the Fisher. In 1968, Rain Lover, like Galilee, demonstrated his new found class by winning both the cup then the Fisher. In the modern era, if you brought back the CB Fisher Plate, there would be a succession of key wfa races that completely bypassed the big cups handicaps - Turnbull Stakes 2000m, Caulfield Stakes 2000m, WS Cox Plate 2040m, LKS Mackinnon Stakes 2000m, CB Fisher Plate 2500m & Zipping Classic 2400m. Racing Victoria has a potential goldmine before it. There are various streams for staying handicaps, shorter distance handicaps, wfa races & three year old classics, as well as mares & fillies races.
sheek
Roar Guru
Hawko, A workmate is tipping Silent Achiever to win the CC. If overseas connections get more sophisticated in their thinking, not to mention the VRC, MRC & MVRC (why can't they have one ATC like in NSW?) as well, then they would realise there's more rich pickings in the Australian spring carnival than just the Melbourne Cup. I reckon the seven weekends (plus midweeks) of Melbourne spring racing from Turnbull Stakes day, to Caulfield Gns day to Caulfield Cup day, to Cox Plate day, to Victorian Derby day, to Emirates Stakes day, to Sandown/Zipping Classic day, is the most wonderfully concentrated stretch of racing anywhere in the world. If you were an overseas trainer/owner, you could bring one each of a stayer, wfa champion, miler & sprinter all to Australia & have a bounty of races to choose from.
Justin Cinque
Expert
So Scott, move the BMW to Epsom Day? Interesting. Interesting indeed!
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
I reckon if Sydney put on a $3m 1.5mile WFA race they would get a heap of the Internationals out here for the Melb Cup plus most of the locals. Why? Because they wont get penalized. Lloyd Williams has caused am embarrassment when he qualified 7 runners and only is going to start one of them and preferred the Cox Plate with 4 of them as it is WFA and no melb Cup penalty. Getting a penalty for the Caulfield Cup winner has weakened it but the alternatives are slim.
Scuba
Guest
Agree it's the influence of Hong Kong and Singapore. Some of the best kiwi trainers (Paul O'Sullivan and Laurie Laxon off the top of my head) are going very well up there, and a very significant number of NZ horses either are bought as yearlings to be exported to race at Sha Tin and Kranji, or huge offers are made for young horses who win a couple of races which, unless the owners really love racing, are always likely to be accepted given the prizemoney on offer in NZ. At the same time, I think the quality of kiwi 1600-2000 metre horses racing here has improved in the last 5 years, and of course It's A Dundeel could be anything.