Victorian racing introduced what could be a great innovation in support of the Everest meeting at Randwick.
It was called the Caulfield Cup. Or so it seemed.
The Everest, also known as the Subterranean, received hectares of media coverage, while the cup ran a distant second and was hardly sighted.
And this year COVID-19 meant the Subterranean couldn’t host the Hooray Harrys and Harriettes who form a large part of the crowd in what is a marketed social day.
The notable factor was that 82-year-old Les Bridge trained the winner, adding to the Melbourne Cup and Golden Slipper he can claim in his long career.
For any racegoer the real story was, or should have been, Verry Elleegant beating an English Derby winner in the Caulfield Cup.
This would have been a major story in any pre-Subterranean time, but was notable because Australia still has one genuine Group 1 performer past 1600 metres in the mighty mare.
It is her lonely task to protect what’s left of Australian racing in the time-honoured classics.
Several Caulfield Cups, the last two Cox Plates, Caulfield Stakes, Queen Elizabeth Stakes, even 1600-metre Group 1s are all won by marauding overseas visitors.
Addeybb, not a top-level English Group 1 performer, can look like a world beater here.
Any distance race is stacked with northern visitors bought cheap because they can run metres past 1600 metres.
And then there is the Melbourne Cup, last won by a local bred in Shocking in 2009. Will there ever be another one?
Brave as she is, Verry Elleegant is unlikely to repel genuine Group 1 performers like the English Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck, the Cox Plate’s Sir Dragonet and the hardened handicappers in the cup.
Worse. If there weren’t overseas entrants, could Australia produce a full field? Most might drop dead asked to run the distance.
How did Australian racing come to be destroyed?
It’s easy to sheet a lot of blame at NSW racing boss Peter V’landys.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
The Subterranean and the Miner Bird, also known as the Golden Eagle, are his innovations. It was his choice to unbalance the traditional sequence of NSW-Victorian autumn and spring carnivals by putting NSW in direct competition.
The Subterranean may be billed as the world’s richest race on turf, but although marketing might make it a social day for the Hooray Harrys and Harriettes, it won’t and can’t attract overseas visitors.
Australian sprinters are the fastest in the world, no doubt. They’re bred to be that.
Eduardo ran a tick over 20 seconds for 400 metres in the middle of this year’s Subterranean, which was astonishing, before finishing down the track, unsurprisingly.
And you’d get virtually the same field for $2 million, but without the marketing and glamour.
V’landys has provided a full rugby league season, which seemed impossible back in May. This has been one of the great administrative performances, and the sport will be forever in his debt.
The symbolic start of racing’s decline is obvious: the Golden Slipper.
Time was when Slipper winners were expected to train on: the Todmans, Sky Highs, Vains, Baguettes, Toy Shows…
But 2012 winner Pierro was the last to become a three-year-old Group 1 performer before starting a successful stud career. Recent winners Vancouver and Capitalist had early spring starts without winning before being packed off to stud.
The Slipper is now a colt’s grand final. Win and a stud career is assured, and the Ponzi scheme continues.
The once time-honoured 3200-metre Brisbane Cup provides as sad a symbol of decline as any. Now 2400 metres, it was tacked on as the last race on Stradbroke Day at the Brisbane winter carnival.
Meanwhile, a Winx comes along but once. Carbine, Phar Lap, Peter Pan, Bernborough, Tulloch, Kingston Town… it’s unlikely another name will join them. RIP.
Perhaps there will be a breeding freak like Gunsynd, out of a Star Kingdom sire and a Newtown Wonder mare.
Perhaps some patient, farseeing breeder will purchase some mares with staying blood from here, there or anywhere and breed them with a Reliable Man or Pierro.
That’s a 100-1 shot.
TJ
Guest
You do realise that the Golden Eagle was introduced as a way of enticing gun 3YO's to race on as 4YO's? You're quite clearly a Victorian that is upset that races like The Everest have become one of the biggest days on the racing calendar.
Nathan Absalom
Roar Guru
The last time a Melbourne Cup was won by an Australian-bred horse was last year with Vow and Declare. Passed in at the sales, hardly a bluebred European type.
sheek
Roar Guru
Max, I can’t recall a similar article appearing last year. But although I live a few minutes drive from RR, I much prefer the Melbourne spring carnival, which I have long thought satisfied the variety parameters I love about racing. I’m not a huge punter, for me it’s the horses, the variety of distances & types of racing conditions. But I think that world is disappearing. We’re becoming more & more sterile like the US with our racing, & that is sad.
Max power
Guest
Agree Shrek, I love variety The author every year writes articles deriding the Everest . I am pretty sure he is Victorian
sheek
Roar Guru
Peeeko, Yeah true. Economics will kill the beauty of racing, like it kills most things eventually. But have people simply got greedier, that they have cut out ‘reasonable risk’? But I hope that when horses outlive their usefulness to humans making money from them, they will “slaughter responsibly”. That’s just a tarty, cynical reply, by the way. No need to respond. I just think I’m so clever to come up with the line, “slaughter responsibly”. It’s as meaningless a statement as “gamble responsibly”.
peeeko
Roar Guru
sorry, it was 2017 and this is the 4th time you have written the same article about the subterranean. think you may have a complex. and you know the Goden eagle is aimed at having horses race until 4 instead of going to stud early
sheek
Roar Guru
MaxPower, And that's precisely the appeal of the Olympics - variety. Not only in offering different sports, but offering duration of races from 100m to 10,000m in athletics on the track, & from 50m to 1500m in the pool. But a whole host of variations beside. The danger of Australian racing is to narrow down to set weight races from 1000m to 1600m & return horses to breeding no later than when they turn 4, because that's the safest, least-risk avenue. It's not about the horses, is it? But then, it never was. They get used by us humans just like everything else.
peeeko
Roar Guru
its all about economics. we have widespread ownership unlike UK aristocrats (purists)
sheek
Roar Guru
Max Power - yeah, fair point.
peeeko
Roar Guru
didnt you write the same article last year with the same genius names ? wow, subterranean, how old are you, 12? the reasons for our lack of stayers over the last 20 years is many. yes 2yo racing is one but people trying to get better returns from a horse means owners dont want to wait like they do in europe. in europe horses re pretty only owned by the mega rich and not in syndicate and they race for no money. and Addeyb hust won a huge group 1 at Ascot last week and Verry Elleegant is a Kiwi
max power
Guest
wow, a year has passed and you remain juvenile calling the everest the subterranean - you must be the life of a party with those jokes. to blame the slipper which is one race ans started 63 years ago is false. also to blame a race that started 4 years ago is wrong. when you watch the olympics - i guess you dont watch the sprint races? just the marathon? i suppose you want the olympics to have handicaps , just like the melbourne cup? the everst and golden eagle has attracted overseas visitors - but they wont be able to compete - it is our specialty. the cup doesnt attract the best anyway as its a handicap - dont think magical, stradvarius and enable ever were aimed at a cup so how are the socialites at the everest any different to the huge crowd at the derby, cup and oaks day? mosty would not know the backside of a horse from the front?
max power
Guest
or maybe the everest is popular because it features horses that most people know and can follow through a preparation. this is the exact opposite of the cup now - as exressed by you
sheek
Roar Guru
A couple of days out from the Melbourne Cup, & I'm the only respondent (so far). I've never felt so detached from a cup field. Who are these horses? Both the Melbourne Cup & The Everest have become facetious (not the word I want, but it'll do for the moment) events but for different reasons. The Everest is a nod to the human revellers. The horses are almost immaterial. You could run a virtual reality Everest & I doubt most of the crowd would notice. The Melbourne crowd are trying to retain the pre-eminence of their race, but they need to fill it with foreigners, because local breeders have lost interest in stayers. So both races, in my view, are missing the mark. But I guess as long as they continue to make money (for some people), the purists can go & get stuffed!
sheek
Roar Guru
Thanks for this article. I think the first culprit was Robert Sangster in the 1980s, I think. He would tell anyone who would listen, & as it turned out, many did, that the Melbourne Cup was the most ridiculous race to be any country's premier race. Hmmmpphh, it was a handicap for crissake. And a marathon to boot. Just so typical of convict colonials. What you need is a wfa race over half that distance. And if we can sell that, then we'll shorten the distance again to 1200m. John Singleton & Gerry Harvey are supposed to be great supporters of horse racing. As long as they make their fortune first. Emphasis, they make their fortune first. They probably had figured out the Sangster blueprint before he told them. Concentrate on distances from 1000m to 1600m, only race horses to 3yo, very occasionally to 4yo, then chuck 'em back into the breeding cycle. Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching. That's what they've been doing in the US for over 70 years, maybe more. Racing no longer has a place for the purist. It's all about the money. Heck, it was always about the money. But in the old days, say about 40-50 years ago, people actually also cared about the whole structure of racing. I remember maybe about 20 years ago starting a conversation with my uncle-in-law, who was a huge punter. I said racing should be balanced between the hedonists & purists (not the words I used, but that was the intent). Racing was better when it had a good mixture of long distance & sprints races, wha & handicaps, as well as 2& 3yo classics & races for distaffs (females). He cut me to the quick with a wave of his hand. I was talking heresy. "I don't care for all that", he replied, "when I punt I don't know the name of the horse, or jockey, or trainer, or what type of race it is, or where it is. I just follow the money & a minute before start time, I ring my bookie with my bets". And that was that. But fortunately the Victorian racing clubs (VRC, MRC, MVRC) still think like me, & I sure as hell hope they eventually succeed. I also hope breeders outside of NSW & maybe Qld realise that racing is best when it has variety, & go back to producing stayers. But that might be wishful thinking at present. Finally, my advice to those still killing race horses for pet food, "slaughter responsibly". Those two words pretty much expose everything that is foul about horse racing. And a direct dig at gambling if anyone missed it!