With the Victoria Racing Club moving the Mackinnon Stakes to the last day of the Flemington carnival, the time is right for the three Melbourne metropolitan clubs to work together and create a rich weight-for-age race series.
As reported two weeks ago, the VRC has switched the Group 1 MacKinnon (which is normally run on Derby Day just one week from the Cox Plate) with the Group 1 Emirates Handicap (run a week later).
At the same time, they have increased prize money of the 2000-metre weight-for-age race to $2 million and changed its name from the Mackinnon Stakes to the Emirates Stakes.
This leaves the Emirates Stakes in the perfect position, just two weeks after the $3 million Group 1 MVRC Cox Plate, to attract a strong quality field that it so deserves.
The traditional lead-up to the Cox Plate is, of course, the Caulfield Stakes. Run on Caulfield Guineas Day and two weeks prior to the Cox Plate, the race always attracts a great field. The honour role of winners includes superstars such as So You Think, Might And Power, Lohnro, and Naturalism.
On the downside, however, despite the race’s prestigious standing and its overall importance to the spring racing calendar, the race is worth just $400,000. It rarely attracts international runners. It needs a big prize money boost.
So here’s the pitch.
Let’s call this race series The World Racing Showdown. Three Group 1 races, all run over the classic distance of 2000 metres, all at weight for age, and all two weeks apart. It could kick off at Caulfield in the Caulfield Stakes, then onto the Cox Plate a fortnight later at Moonee Valley and finishes two weeks later on the last day of the Flemington carnival with the Emirates Stakes.
Prize money to be increased to $2 million for the Caulfield Stakes (I hear Racing Victory have some funds in the kitty!) taking the total standard stakes across the three races to $7 million.
Let’s have a running points system with the horse with the most points over the three races to be crowned the weight-for-age champion of the world. The top five place-getters on the ladder at the end of the series could share a $1 million bonus.
Let’s have a $2 million bonus to be awarded to the horse that can take out all three races. All up there would be a massive $10M up for grabs!
Can you imagine the public interest (and betting turnover) this type of racing series would attract? Not only from within Australian shores, but globally. Not to mention the numbers of trainers and owners worldwide that would want to compete in such a series with such large prize money on offer.
The series would add another bow to our spring carnival which often relies on the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups for much of its publicity.
It’s the right time to pull this together, to find the thoroughbred champion of the world, and to make our spring carnival as great as it can be.
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