Road To The Melbourne Cup
The race was billed as a promising spectacle and I’d like to open by saying what a sensational Cox Plate we had on Saturday at Moonee Valley.
The interesting thing was that there were only three Australian bred horses in the race, and the first three home were by Camelot or Galileo, with the fourth another import. It just shows the dominance of European breeding when you get to 2000 metres plus over here.
Russian Camelot and the winner, Sir Dragonet, will both go forward to the Melbourne Cup out of that and these are very, very good horses.
Historically, the form coming out of the Cox Plate in the Melbourne Cup has varied. Horses have run well in the Melbourne Cup when coming from a Cox Plate, but that was probably before we had this influx of really good European stayers.
Now there are genuine two mile, staying horses, the Cox Plate-Melbourne Cup double is a little more challenging than what once was the case.
You only need to look at the latest acceptances for the Melbourne Cup. There are some really good two mile horses in there. You have the brilliant horses such as Verry Elleegant and Russian Camelot, but then there is Master Of Reality, Prince Of Arran, Surprise Baby – these are dead set two milers.
A few months ago we didn’t know how many, if any at all, internationals we would have over. I think the representation of the internationals this year, as is exemplified by the runners so far with Anthony Van Dyck running so well in the Caulfield Cup and Sir Dragonet winning the Cox Plate, is as good an international representation as any other year.
If there’s a horse we’d love to win it aside from one of ours it would be Prince Of Arran. He’s been so consistent and would be a great result.
But there are some really good local horses who are going to be exceptional at the two miles. Take Persan, for example, the Bart Cummings winner, it hasn’t done a thing wrong. I think it’s shaping up to be a really good Melbourne Cup, there are some real, genuine Group 1 horses in there.
As for our horses, with the latest acceptances San Huberto has got to find his way in at the moment. He’s one that’s a proper two miler but he needs some help to get into the field. He also needs to improve on his Geelong Cup performance, because that was inferior.
I think he was a little under done for that race. Matt’s been able to work him solidly since then and he’s got that work into him now. Hopefully he gets his chance.
With True Self, Willie’s always been adamant she can run two miles and she’s pulled up well out of her Caulfield Cup run. She could always get knocked down from a winner of the Lexus or Bendigo Cup, but I think she’s more likely to get into the field than not.
We have some very strong contenders for the Lexus as well that will be very hard to beat and could earn a spot in the field. Future Score, who won the Cranbourne Cup, and Attorney, who’s going very well, both of those horses will be single-figure odds in the race.
In the modern era it’s been hard to win a Melbourne Cup on the back of a Lexus. You’d want your horse to come out of it well.
It’s a good race, the Lexus. With the win-and-you’re-in scenario it creates a sense of drama about the whole weekend. It’s a big challenge and quick back up but I like the race and what it brings to the calendar.
Racing Victoria does a lot right and I think the system is pretty good for determining the field for the Melbourne Cup. We had a period there where the internationals were being given an unfair advantage. But I think it’s been great that we have a number of races on the calendar that allow local horses to gain a place in the Melbourne Cup and more generally they’re doing much more to help local horses earn a way into the race.
One thing racing in Victoria does need to improve is on its unity, if it wants to compete with the challenge from New South Wales in recent years and I believe some notable changes are required.
The biggest benefit that allows Racing NSW to market itself is that it can race as one. Fundamentally, between the ATC and Racing NSW, it’s a single entity up there.
You only have to look at Caulfield Cup Day which coincided with Everest Day in Sydney. The Everest was promoted brilliantly. Even the television stations were calling it Everest Day instead of Caulfield Cup Day. It tells you something.
In Victoria you’ve got Racing Victoria and the three clubs, that each compete with each other, and then compete interstate. There is no uniform, holistic approach to the marketing of racing in Victoria. Until that happens in Victoria, they will be exposed to the challenges from NSW and indeed elsewhere, because they are not cohesive enough as a racing unit to cope with that pressure.
It’s like having a transport company with three parcel companies all competing against each other. You get no synergy, no economies of scale.
Racing Victoria is supposed to be an integrating force on these matters. Well, that’s gone out the wall. The VRC decided they wanted to do their own television deal with Channel 10 and then Racing Victoria do their own deals with the Seven network, it’s totally fragmented.
Willie Mullins told me last week, he said he went to watch the Caulfield Cup on Sky Sports Racing in Ireland, and landed on some country meeting from New South Wales. How silly is this? We’re going out of our way to get these people to come and race from these countries and then they can’t even watch the race.
In addition, you’re going to save a hell of a lot of money through the removal of the duplication between the clubs. It’s been estimated that the cost of running racing in Victoria is about 25% greater than in New South Wales. That doesn’t make sense in a competitive environment.
You can’t expect Racing NSW to sit on their hands and for Victoria to do what it’s always done, simply because they’ve always done it. In any competitive environment, you can’t take away from V’Landys these opportunities that they’ve opened up. It’s then down to Victoria to then make sure that they are a competitive force to be able to withstand it. If they’re not, then it says something about the people running racing in Victoria.
The latest announcement is that there will be no crowds on course for the Melbourne Cup Carnival, which is disappointing, it would be nice for our owners to be there.
However, I have no problem with that and I understand why the measures are there and at the end of the day these measures have protected the industry and allowed us to carry on racing right through. There aren’t many who have been able to do that.
Week Ahead runners
Chaillot – She’ll be going around in the Empire Rose. She’s a very good filly so we’ll be looking forward to her and she ran very well last time to finish third at Caulfield in the Group 3 last time out
Harbour Views – He’ll be going in the Cantala. Kerrin McEvoy will be taking the ride and we’ll be looking forward to him as well
Haky – This horse is working very, very well. We sent him off to the beach after his disappointing run last time and Archie is very confident he’ll run well in the Bendigo Cup
Azuro – He has come down from Sydney. We’ll still wait and have a think as to whether he’s a Bendigo Cup or Lexus contender, but at this stage he’s not racing quite as well as last year, when he was third in the Lexus, so he’ll probably continue in the Bendigo Cup and can go on to the Sandown Cup from there
Attorney – He’s still in good form and has come out of the St Leger well. His performance was good there and he’ll be a well fancied chance in the Lexus
Future Score – He won the Cranbourne Cup and is progressing really nicely. He’s another who will be a good chance of winning the Lexus
Sound Of Cannons – He’s been nominated for the Rosehill Gold Cup and also the 1900-metre handicap. I think we’ll likely run him in the latter, but it will be interesting to see him step out. We’ll have Mantastic who will definitely go for the Rosehill Cup.