What does The Everest mean for the future of Aussie racing?

Here is the present of Australian racing, which portends the future.

In the present an aged ex-Japanese galloper, Tosen Stardom, wins the time-honoured Group-One Toorak Handicap.

A patched-up import, Gailo Chop, wins the time-honoured Group-One Caulfield Stakes from another visitor, Johannes Vermeer.

The Aiden O’Brien-trained runner-up looked like a world-beater but has struggled in Group-One company in Britain.

Up in Sydney another imported stayer, Big Duke, wins the revived St Leger and is being set for the Melbourne Cup.

A quick look at the past reveals no Australian-bred galloper has finished in the top four in the Melbourne Cup since 2010.

Take Wink out, and what Australian horse stands out as a class galloper beyond a mile?

Happy Clapper was brave in Saturday’s Craven Plate but 2000m was just a touch further than he wanted to go.

The main support to Winx in the past two seasons has been Hartnell, himself a former English galloper.

Australian trainers buy ready-made stayers of Group-Three or listed standard from overseas, and those horses make up most of the fields and dominate in local staying races.

There was a literal handful of Australasian starters in last year’s Melbourne Cup.

Does the future mean a year in which there won’t be a single Australian-bred in the cup; the breeding industry suggests so.

And certainly that’s short odds if The Subterranean, AKA The Everest, continues.

Has there even been a more destructive innovation in the history of Australian racing than the $10 million 1200m Randwick scamper?

It’s perpetrators might congratulate themselves on the publicity and the 33,000 crowd, substantially populated by Hooray Harrys and Harriets, but what of the future?

Will success mean the race is defined by drawing half the field from overseas?

The Subterranean would have drawn the same field as a $2 million race.

The Golden Slipper has already had a ruinous effect, and it’s far from the race and predictor of future careers it once was. It’s now a grand-final in which few of the starters train on.

(AAP Image/Brendan Esposito)

At least the winner She Will Reign and Houtzen made it to the barrier for The Subterranean from this year’s Slipper, but it’s no accident both are fillies.

Recent Slipper-winning colts Vancouver and Capitalist didn’t make it past the start of the spring before being bundled off to stud.

It could be argued The Subterranean could provide an incentive for Slipper colts to stagger on, but against that there stud value would decrease if they finished down the track.

We now have a breeding industry geared to producing brilliant, brittle sprinters.

No Winx this year and another import It’s Somewhat, a moderate performer in Britain, wins the 1600m Donacaster.

Winx is a freak; her like won’t be seen again.

With the likes of The Subterranean and the way the breeding industry is structured, how many local Caulfield and Melbourne Cup winners will we see in the future?

Commenting on the change in the industry, the late Bart Cummings said the Australasian-bred was once the toughest horse in the world.

If he were alive, could the Cups king even get an Australian-bred to the Flemington post now.

The phrase “turning in his grave” comes to mind.