When The Championships were announced last November, it threatened the standing of Melbourne autumn racing.
For so many years the Melbourne autumn was a chance for the nation’s sprinters to shine. In a period spanning two months, the running of the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (1000m, Group 1, weight-for-age), Oakleigh Plate (1100, Group 1, handicap), Newmarket Handicap (1200m, Group 1, handicap) and William Reid (1200m, Group 1, weight-for-age) would determine the nation’s best sprinter.
And those great sprints were supported by important middle-distance races like the Australian Cup (2000m, Group 1, weight-for-age) and Australian Guineas (1600m, Group 1, three-year-olds).
In recent times the best horses in Melbourne have not needed to travel to Sydney in the autumn to claim the prizemoney and Group 1 glory they deserve.
But The Championships change that. The TJ Smith (1200m, Group 1, weight-for-age) is now worth $2.5m – $1.5m more than any other sprint in Australia. The Queen Elizabeth (2000m, Group 1, weight-for-age) is now a $4m race and offers more money than the Cox Plate (2040m, Group 1, weight-for-age) and Caulfield Cup (2400m, Group 1, handicap), let alone the autumn’s other great 2000m race, the Australian Cup, which is run for $1m.
Melbourne autumn racing is in danger of falling into the trap that Sydney autumn racing fell into before The Championships – of becoming somewhat irrelevant.
In the last ten years there have been so many special moments in Melbourne autumn racing.
Lonhro’s 2004 Australian Cup victory could be regarded as the most epic 2000m performance in Australia so far this century.
As a spectacle, last year’s thrilling Australian Cup stouch between Super Cool and Fiveandahalfstar was not too far behind.
The Flemington battles of Fastnet Rock and Alinghi down the straight in 2005 are the basis for a rivalry that was arguably more exciting than the Black Caviar-Hay List duels that were contested on the same hallowed turf in the autumns of 2011 and 2012.
Already we know that in the 2014 Melbourne autumn there will be no It’s A Dundeel, Zoustar, Boban or Guelph. They will be aimed at Sydney.
Certainly, the absence of three-year-old colt Zoustar (who will be saved for the TJ Smith) is a massive blow.
He is, by a mile, the most exciting sprinter in Australia. Sprinters like Zoustar have not bypassed the Melbourne autumn in modern times.
The Championships have blinkered trainers of the nation’s best sprinters in a manner that essentially means we will be seeing less of racing’s short-course stars than ever before.
Fastnet Rock provides a great example. In his three-year-old autumn, in 2005, he raced three times in Melbourne (in the Lighning, Oakleigh Plate and Newmarket) and once in Sydney (TJ Smith).
After the TJ Smith he was retired to stud, where he became one of the greatest producing stallions in Australian history.
If we see Zoustar three times in the autumn we will be spoiled. He may only appear in the Canterbury (1300m, Group 1, weight-for-age) and TJ Smith. The All Aged (1400m, Group 1, weight-for-age) on the last Saturday of the Sydney autumn could be his Australian farewell before a trip to Royal Ascot in our winter.
Not every year will the highest profile sprinter miss each of the four Group 1 sprints of the Melbourne autumn but now it will happen every so often, especially when that sprinter has a lucrative career at stud beckoning.
And it’s easy to understand why.
In 2014, the TJ Smith offers $1.5m to the winner. If a horse wins the four Melbourne Group 1 sprints they will only net their owners a total of $1.4m. The prizemoney on offer during The Championships is special.
So it’s highly unlikely we’ll see any of Zoustar, It’s A Dundeel, Boban or Guelph in the Melbourne autumn. But that doesn’t mean there will no drawcards.
Fiorente, the Melbourne Cup (3200m, Group 1, handicap) winner, may be sent south from Sydney for the Australian Cup. There he may meet the Cox Plate (2040m, Group 1, weight-for-age) winner Shamus Award who is being set for the Australian Guineas.
In the sprints, the likes of Buffering, Samaready and Friday night’s Australia Stakes (1200m, Group 2, weight-for-age) runner-up Moment of Change will provide the headline acts.
But the real excitement? That’s in the two-year-olds. The juveniles could carry the Melbourne autumn.
The Robbie Laing-trained Boomwaa, the Maribrynong Plate (1000m, Group 3, two-year-olds) winner, could line-up in the Lightning over the same course as distance as the Maribyrnong but at Group 1 weight-for-age level.
He would carry 46kgs. What an exciting but rare proposition. No two-year-old has run in the Lightning since 1993. In fact, I’d guess since 1993 very few two-year-olds would have run at weight-for-age in any Group race.
But two-year-olds have a great record in the Lightning. That two-year-old that ran in 1993, Clever Zoe, was second to the great Schillaci, who claimed his second Lightning that year in a sharp 56s flat.
The first two-year-old to win the Lightning was Ritmar in 1959. 17 years later in 1976, two-year-old filly Desirable was the second, and to this point the only other juvenile to claim the Lightning. Amazingly, another two-year-old filly, Flaunting, was third in 1976.
Desirable had a very young Miracle Malcolm Johnston aboard in the Lightning. Actually, she carried Miracle to his first Group 1 success and later that month she would run second in the Blue Diamond (1200m, Group 1, two-year-olds) against her own age.
We all know how much interest three-year-olds create at Cox Plate time. But with only 46kgs on their back, and in a dash like the Lightning, I think two-year-old representation in the Lightning is an even more interesting talking point.
I couldn’t tell you a lot about any of the aforementioned two-year-old winners or placegetters of the Lightning.
They don’t seem to come up in conversation when talking about the great two-year-olds in Australian racing history even though they scaled weight-for-age heights.
There may be many reasons why these two-year-old Lightning runners have been relatively forgotten but I think the featherweight they carried is one of them. It certainly made their task Lightning possible.
Another interesting point is when Clever Zoe was second in the 1993 Lightning, the 56.0s time remains the fourth fastest Lightning on record.
For further perspective on that time, the legendary Black Caviar holds two of the four fastest Lightning times at 55.42s (track record) in 2013 and 55.5s in 2012.
When Desirable won in 1976 with the other two-year-old filly Flaunting in third, they carted the 1000m in a sharp 56.8s – a time that equalled the then race record.
There’s no doubt in my mind that if Boomwaa, a horse with a lot of natural speed, runs in the Lightning and is given the chance to run time, he could figure in the finish. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that history says two-year-olds run well in the Lightning when the time is fast.
So if Boomwaa runs in the Lightning, there’s plenty to get excited about.
But the clash of two-year-olds Rubick and Earthquake in the Blue Diamond promises to be the race of the Melbourne autumn. Both Rubick and Earthquake have only had one start each and they could not have been more impressive.
Earthquake was breath-taking on debut at Randwick last November. She won like a Group 1 horse and was described by her jockey Christian Reith as “the next Guelph”.
Rubick, on the other hand, came to the races on Saturday with a big reputation. He had won his only trial effortlessly by seven lengths and in sharp time.
On debut on Saturday he lowered Earthquake’s time from last November and broke the class record in the process. It was an incredibly soft victory and the record-breaking time speaks volumes.
I’ve no doubt Earthquake would need to have improved since the spring to match Rubick, who will almost certainly derive benefit from his debut.
I can’t remember two juveniles being so highly regarded in January. Rubick and Earthquake may never have laid eyes on each other but already a rivalry exists. At the moment, it seems that between them the Blue Diamond crown lays.
And right now racing needs a two-horse rivalry.
Because not for many years has the Melbourne autumn struggled to attract the best horses in Australia.
It’s time for the two-year-olds to fill a void. I’m confident the likes of Boomwaa, Rubick and Earthquake can do it in the next two months.
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