On Tuesday, Racing Victoria announced a handful of changes which should improve the Spring Carnival program. The most important was a reduction in distance for the A.J. Moir Stakes (Group 1, weight-for-age) from 1200 metres to 1000 metres.
The change ends a ridiculous situation that had the race stand as the first of three 1200-metre, Group 1, weight-for-age night events conducted at Moonee Valley during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons.
The distance reduction means there are now two 1000-metre weight-for-age Group 1 contests in Australia – the Black Caviar Lightning at Flemington in February and the Moir under lights in October. It’s a much fairer program, considering there are still 12 Group 1s contested over 1200 metres, half of which are weight-for-age races.
The Moir was run over 1000 metres until 2007 and had a reputation for being one of the most exciting races of the spring. The field would always be small but a frantic finish usually ensued. One of my favourite renewals was when Frankie Dettori, in Melbourne to ride Grandera in the Cox Plate, was the architect of a brilliant hold-up ride to prevail aboard the top Sydney mare Spinning Hill in 2002.
The Moir was always the highlight of the Cox Plate undercard until it was moved to a spot earlier in the season in 2012.
1000-metre racing is exciting at Moonee Valley because the tight track has horses working hard for a position “through the gap” to the first turn and then around the sweeping home bend. I’ve often heard the Moonee Valley 1200-metre described as the toughest in Melbourne. If that’s the case, the 1000-metre circuit probably deserves the same accolade.
The reduction in the Moir distance is definitely a winner. The next step should be to relegate the William Reid, another of Moonee Valley’s 1200-metre Group 1s, to Group 2 status. Seventy-two Australian Group 1s is at least 20 too many and to have two (certainly an improvement on three) Group 1s run over the exact same conditions and track is excessive.
The next change announced by Racing Victoria sees the Schillaci Stakes (Group 2, weight-for-age) increase in distance from 1000 metres to 1100 metres. This allows horses that run in the Moir the chance to progress to the Manikato (1200m, Group 1, weight-for-age) and Darley Sprint Classic (1200m, Group 1, weight-for-age) via an 1100-metre stepping stone.
The move makes obvious sense and should increase the chances of the nation’s best sprinters meeting several times during the spring. That is fantastic news for Australian racing fans.
The final change to the spring program has the Underwood Stakes (1800m, Group 1, weight-for-age) and Sir Rupert Clarke (1400m, Group 1, handicap) moving to the same meeting, on Saturday September 26, two weeks after the Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m, Group 1, weight-for-age) meeting on September 12.
Usually the Underwood and Makybe Diva would be run a week apart, diluting the quality of both Group 1s. This seems a positive move. Now horses can go two weeks between runs from the Memsie (1400m, Group 1, weight-for-age) to the Makybe Diva, Underwood, Caulfield Stakes (2000m, Group 1, weight-for-age) and Cox Plate (2040m, Group 1, weight-for-age).
This change in programming, however, helps create the bizarre situation that has Caulfield hosting six meetings in a month during the middle of the carnival.
Obviously missing the presence of the Underwood, Caulfield hosts a relatively low-key Saturday card on September 19 before the aforementioned September 26 meeting. Caulfield takes over from Sandown on AFL grand final Day, October 3, before kicking off its annual three-day Caulfield Cup Carnival the week after that.
Last year, Caulfield hosted one less meeting over the same period with the grand final card taking place at Sandown. As has been the case over the last two years, the grand final card sandwiches the Moir meeting on grand final eve and the Sir Rupert Clarke meeting on the Sunday after. But, because the AFL grand final takes place a week later this year, the Turnbull (2000m, Group 1, set weights and penalties) meeting at Flemington will be run on that Sunday in 2015, as it has done a few times in the last 10 years.
With the AFL grand final expected to revert back to the last Saturday in September in 2016, we should see the Underwood-Clarke meeting run the day after the AFL grand final to keep the Underwood two weeks after the Makybe Diva. If my memory serves me correct, this was the program used in the early 2000s. That surely should mean the grand final day meeting will be held away from Caulfield next year.
Regardless, it seems ridiculous to have this year’s grand final meeting at Caulfield, especially considering it could be held at Sandown or Mornington like previous years. As well as this, the September 19 card lacks a lot of drawing power and could be held elsewhere too.
It would be a shame to have the Caulfield Cup ruined by a tired track. The Melbourne Racing Club will have extra reason to be praying for clear skies this spring!
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Great read Justin. As Andrew says above - sensible programming and sequencing for the main. Caulfield will have its work cut out for it, lets hope it rises to the challenge.
andrew
Guest
justin. im a MRC member and regular at Caul. Firstly, i simply wont get the missus giving me 6 outs for the spring in sept/oct. i will be at memsie day in last sat of aug. im pumped the underwood/rupert clarke (and both the guineas preludes) are now all back on the same card. this is a good move. i would rather one very strong meeting like the underwood will be, than two diluted meeting (think cox plate day and cox plate eve for example). so i have no issue with the meeting on the sat prior being a non-feature meeting with only a listed sprint and naturalism stks. they have put sensible programming and sequencing first and this is to be applauded by racing insiders (ie, trainers, owners), but also those who like a good quality meeting (not a diluated one like cox plate weekend). the caulfield carnival week in mid-october is unchanged and doesnt need to. they have got it right. the change in this is the loss for the feehan stks i feel now sandwiched between the craiglee and underwood. the underwood mtg used to be on a sunday many years ago, but it has always traditionally been on prelim final day on a sat arvo (a great time-slot giving no day time prelim finals in melb are played any more and VFL final is on the sunday). i would think they could/should have shifted one of these two meetings to sand or morn though. the 13th sept meeting has arisen as a result of MV shifting their meeting which used to be run on that sat to a friday night. this is fair enough, the focus MVRC is now firmly that of the being the 'friday night' track. this is their brand, they need to be serious about. this has created the vacancy on what is typically semi-final weekend in AFL. no grips with this meeting going to caul even if not strongest program. but i agree, we do not need to race at caul on grand final weekend, this meeting should be at sand or morn. its been there in the past and even if one track is being renovated MRC can chop and change. this would give caul, which already has a very busy load in august, two sat's in a row in sept, then 20 days break before their 3 'carnival' meetings in mid-oct. that said, the caul track played superbly last spring and no reason to think it wont again. further, we dont get 'tropical downpours' in melb this time of year, and the tracks drains so well, they spend more time worrying about watering it, than if its dry. its only an issue if you get heavy rain during the actual meeting (but even this happened at flem a few years back on derbry day and it races well for rest of flem carnival).
peeeko
Guest
agree, too many group ones (especially some of the recent promotions like the Makybe ), great to see the moir reduced to 1000m and yes to the william reid being relegated