Is it good for Australia to have foreigners plundering our wealth and encroaching on our lifestyle to such a large extent?
Yes, I am talking about the Melbourne Cup, not the wider immigration debate, but the parallels do seem striking.
I agree with those who have voiced concern about the trend of more and more overseas invaders raiding our cultural treasure with each passing year.
The myth of the bush trainer with a cheap horse finding his way to Flemington to outdo the big boys was probably always just that, a myth, but it was nice to see a couple of smokies at the bottom of the weights battling it out with the city slickers.
The bigger problem, as I see it, with the preponderance of overseas runners is that it is almost impossible to assess the form. We may have our own ideas on which international events are better guides, but it seems to change from year to year.
This is exacerbated by the fact that winners are appearing who have hardly had a dozen starts. There is just not much for punters to go on, and I do worry that the once-a-year players in particular may feel completely alienated by it all.
Even rusted-on racing fans are starting to feel this way.
Another aspect to this is that the time-honoured lead-up program has been altered to accommodate the visitors. I refer to the rescheduling of the Mackinnon Stakes to the last Saturday of the carnival, presumably in recognition of the fact that foreign horses virtually never race twice within four days.
This would not have happened while Bart Cummings was alive, and the jury is still very much out on whether this was the right move.
We all used to love watching Mackinnon replays looking for the “run-on” type who looked as though he or she would peak on Cup day. Now, it is simply a second Cox Plate, which is fine as far as it goes, but trifling with racing history should not be done lightly.
Still, the winner of the Cup needs to be found, and I intend to bury my head in the form for a day or two in pursuit of this ever-noble objective.
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