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There is a very good chance the 2014 George Ryder (1500m, Group 1, weight-for-age) will go down as a watershed moment in the history of Sydney racing.
Won by the Irish galloper Gordon Lord Byron, this season’s Ryder will be remembered for two very different reasons – its exposé of the quality of Australian racing, and for launching a new international era in Sydney Autumn racing.
Gordon Lord Byron becomes a modern-day Vintage Crop
When Irish horse Vintage Crop won the 1993 Melbourne Cup (3200m, Group 1, handicap), he became the first North Hemisphere-trained galloper to win the race and a pioneer for what is now an international race.
Vintage Crop showed the global racing industry what was possible and the Melbourne Cup grew as a result. The great handicap is now contested by an increasing amount of international gallopers and the race is as intriguing in 2014 as it ever has been.
Gordon Lord Byron’s victory in the George Ryder can act in a similar way. The world now knows what is possible for an international raider in the Sydney autumn.
A genuine Group 1 performer in Europe, Gordon Lord Byron didn’t take to the artificial Tapeta surface at last year’s Dubai World Cup meeting and was sent to Sydney in 2014 instead.
Gordon Lord Byron is one of just two international raiders to have travelled to Sydney for this year’s Autumn Carnival, but his victory will surely be the catalyst for greater international representation in future Sydney autumns.
Australian racing at a low ebb
I grew up in a fantastic time in Australian racing in the 1990s. In autumn and spring, I’d watch some of the best horses in the world in Sydney and Melbourne on a near-weekly basis.
I learnt to love the look and style of Australian racing, but I also believed I was watching some of the best racing in the world.
I still love the look and style of Australian racing now – I suspect I always will be partial to our ‘sit-and-sprint’ style – but the standard isn’t the same.
Whether we like it or not, Australian racing isn’t currently world class. We still run important races with big prize-money, but our Group 1 horses are average on a global scale.
The Australian breed of thoroughbred is still very much world class – in Dubai on Sunday morning, Australian-bred gallopers won two races on the World Cup program. The problem for Australian racing is the stranglehold the breeding industry has on the sport.
It is one thing to lose probable champions like All Too Hard and Pierro to stud at three (as we did in 2013), but when Darley – one of the largest racing operations in the country – continually moves the cream of their Australian crop to Europe or Dubai each season, Australian racing suffers even more.
Of course, Darley is a breeding operation before it is a racing one. Any European exposure they can get for their Australian horses will only be beneficial to their breeding operation down the track.
But before Darley and its owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum entered Australian racing in 2007 by buying the Ingham’s Woodlands Stud, we would see every decent horse that walked through Crown Lodge at Warwick Farm complete their career in Australia.
When Lonhro – perhaps the greatest thoroughbred to have ever walked through those stables – won the Caulfield Guineas in 2001, he raced in Australia for the Inghams until he was retired to stud with ten Group 1s.
Lonhro was an outstanding galloper, but he was incredibly popular as well. By racing 35 times in Australia, Lonhro did wonders for the local product during his illustrious career. He is a horse that sits close to my heart.
Yet after Darley’s Helmet – also trained out of Crown Lodge – won the Caulfield Guineas in 2011, he was exported to race in Dubai and Europe in 2012. Long John, the 2013 Guineas winner for Darley, is a gelding and he too has been moved to Dubai.
The Caulfield Guineas is arguably our most prestigious three-year-old race and each time a Darley horse wins, the loser is Australian racing. But the breeding industry cannot be held solely responsible for this current low ebb in Australian racing.
Very rarely to do we see the best active gallopers racing at Group 1 level in Australia today. We run more than 70 Group 1 races in this country when 25 would suffice.
It means we hand out Group 1 victories to horses who aren’t deserving of them, like Tiger Tees, who won The Galaxy (1100m, Group 1, handicap) on Saturday. He’s not a Group 1 horse of any reputable standard, and neither are any of the three horses – Anatina, Villa Verde and Sessions – that finished immediately in his wake.
The Galaxy could have been run at Group 3 weight-for-age. It probably would have attracted the same field for half the prize-money.
Running 70 Group 1s allows trainers to pick and choose which Group 1s they want to contest. Samaready, a horse I ranked in the top 15 of Australian racing last spring, will bypass the $2.5m TJ Smith (1200m, Group 1, weight-for-age) on April 12 to race in the Sportingbet Classic (1200m, Group 1, weight-for-age, mares) in Adelaide a fortnight later.
When Gordon Lord Byron lined up in the George Ryder, he did so as a dual European Group 1 winner. In Europe, no handicap race can be given Group 1 status. Each time a horse wins a Group 1, they do so at weight-for-age or set weights, and consequently without any favours.
What makes the caper even more competitive is the fact there are just over 30 Group 1s run each season in Britain.
In Melbourne, Moonee Valley alone hosts three 1200m Group 1 weight-for-age night races. In the whole of Britain, there are a total of five 1200m (six furlong) Group 1s, two of which are age restricted.
Gordon Lord Byron just happens to be a winner of an English 1200m Group 1 race – the 2013 Haydock Sprint Cup. It is no surprise that he was able to come to Australia and win a feature Group 1 weight-for-age race.
Quite simply, Gordon Lord Byron was dropping significantly in class.
On the track, Australian racing is not in good health. Champions can carry racing, but we have none. And even if we did unearth a new champion, how long would they be on the track before being retired?
At least Gordon Lord Byron’s victory may mean we’ll see more internationals in Sydney next year. If they come, they’ll prop up Australian racing’s second biggest carnival – and they might even win a big race.
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