Down with The Everest

If there is a great stable in the sky, the late Tommy Smith would be looking down and wanting to bolt down to Randwick.

If he were still with us, TJ would be applying the legendary Tulloch Lodge bone-and-muscle to a budding three-year-old, aimed at lining up for its probable 20th start in the $10 million The Everest scamper at Randwick come October.

By now, the horse would have started in the Blue Diamond and Golden Slipper and all lucrative races in between, planned to be second-up from a spell in the $1 million Memsie in Melbourne, back up to Sydney for the $1 million Golden Rose and then The Everest, followed by the $1 million Caulfield Guineas a week later, and round out the spring in the Cox Plate.

If he were still standing, the horse might even go on to Perth.

As TJ was wont to say, they couldn’t earn money at home in the stable on a Saturday, and what a mountain of prizemoney there is to be had.

The late Bart Cummings would have his best three-year-old back home in the stable instead of on the track, no doubt, as the two giants of training had competing philosophies, and both worked.

The Everest. Has there ever been a more misleading name for a race, which is a 1200m sprint?

It should be called the Subterranean and Coles should be a sponsor on the day, because it is sending Australian racing down, down.

Has there ever been a more appalling innovation?

When Australasian racing could only produce four locally bred horses in the last Melbourne Cup.

When the last Australasian-bred Cup winner since 2009 was Prince of Penzance, and it was no accident it was rated a 100-1 chance.

When former Group One staying races have had their status and distances reduced, and are mostly put on for moderately-performed overseas imports.

At least there is a sense of humour attached to the Gold Coast Magic Millions extravaganza in January.

The meeting has staged an 1800m Stayers Cup. 1800m. It’s hoped this was a black joke.

The reality is, put on a $2 million Subterranean and there would be the same local entrants.

What is gained if there are a couple of overseas visitors, attracted by the obscene prizemoney? Australian sprinters have already proved themselves against the best overseas. A stallion might marginally increase its stud value by beating the imports over here, but so what?

As for stud value, recent Golden Slipper winners Vancouver and Capitalist wouldn’t have made it to the starter for the Subterranean. They’d already been retired, to be sent to the breeding barn.

Golden-Slipper winners seldom train on now; the race is their grand final, and they’re just two-year-olds.

Bart Cummings said the colonial-bred was once the toughest horse in the world, but shuttle stallions and the accent on producing speedy squibs had destroyed that.

He’d added, facetiously, that the Golden Slipper should be run at Randwick, a tougher 1200m and his commentary on what Australian racing had become.

As it stands, the best thing about the Randwick extravaganza that will unbalance the spring is the increase in Craven Plate prizemoney to $500,000.

That might entice Chris Waller to keep Winx in Sydney as a lead-up to the Cox Plate, but it’s a long time since Phar Lap was winning the Craven Plate, then Sydney’s premier weight-for-age race.

That was a time when Australia followed the British pattern, with stayers and weight-for-age performers the stars and sprinters secondary supports.

Now it’s a win if a locally-bred horse runs a place in the Melbourne Cup. Golden Slipper starters struggle to win if they train on, and it’s easier for trainers to import third-rate overseas stayers than develop our own, because there aren’t any local sires producing them.

Sazabeel, the lonely son of Zabeel, has been doing it on his own.

Down, down, thumbs down for The Subterranean.