Victorian industry debates Caulfield Cup move
Racing Victoria’s executive general manager of racing Greg Carpenter said yesterday that there would likely be a host of changes to the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival, should the Melbourne Racing Club proposal to move the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and the Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) to the last two Saturdays in November be adopted.
Carpenter confirmed to Racing.com that there was a detailed proposal that had been put before RV and the race clubs but that a decision was still likely to be weeks away.
The proposal, which was first reported by the Herald Sun on Monday night but followed months of speculation amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, involves moving the Caulfield Guineas to November 21 and the Caulfield Cup to November 28.
According to Carpenter, while it was too early to determine what would happen under different scenarios, he said that RV – who would make the final decision about the spring calendar – would look at moving the key lead-up races to the Caulfield Guineas and the Caulfield Cup in the Caulfield Guineas Prelude (Gr 3, 1400m) and the Herbert Power Stakes (Gr 2, 2400m) respectively.
“If some of the Caulfield feature races were to move after the Melbourne Cup Carnival, including the Caulfield Cup itself, we have a responsibility to ensure we have a more than adequate – an outstanding lead-in program – for all those grand finals that I have mentioned, still is in place,” Carpenter told Racing.com.
“So, if the Caulfield Cup and the Herbert Power were to move to after the Melbourne Cup, you’d have to look at what remained there, the timing of those races. Ultimately the Racing Victoria board controls race days so we’re hoping that whatever decision is made about how the Spring Carnival looks in 2020, that it will have the support of all the clubs.”
Melbourne Racing Club chairman Peter Le Grand told RSN927 yesterday that any decision to move the Caulfield Cup would not impact either the quality of the race or take away from the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m), which is to remain on the first Tuesday in November.
“If you go back through the races, there haven’t been too many Caulfield Cup winners in the last 15 to 16 years that have gone on to win the Melbourne Cup,” Le Grand said. “It’s not going to affect the race that much. We want it to stand on its own as well. The Caulfield Cup is a very prestigious race and always has been and it will stand on its own.
“I don’t think the move will decrease the quality at all. Not a lot of horses go through the Caulfield Cup on a Cups path these days, things have changed.”
While no decision has been made by the Melbourne Racing Club as to their preference, Le Grand himself says that his preference is for the move to happen.
“We are exploring options, there’s no doubt about that, because our priority is to get our members and our people back to the track and give them the opportunity to see the races, to see the Caulfield Cup, to enjoy the Spring Carnival,” Le Grand said.
“We think it’s worthy of consideration because when you consider the AFL will be running finals through October against the Caulfield races and the Cox Plate, we think there’s some huge advantage if the Caulfield Cup was run later.
“Just imagine if we had a Caulfield Cup with no crowd? That’d be absolutely shattering for our members.”
The potential switch has sparked plenty of debate amongst the Melbourne racing community.
David Hayes, who won the Caulfield Cup with Fraar (Topsider) and Tawqeet (Kingmambo), believes that the entire spring should be pushed further back to allow more time for horses to spell during the winter months. However, he doesn’t see any reason to change the sequence of races.
“I’ve said it for years that a later date is better for your horse the further you can get away from winter,” said Hayes, who departs for Hong Kong in the coming weeks. “Horses always do better later in the year. The sequence of races has worked for something like 120 years, so don’t meddle with that, just move it back three or four weeks and keep it simple.”
He is supported by another Caulfield Cup-winning trainer in Danny O’Brien, who argues that the whole spring should be moved back a month with the Melbourne Cup falling on the first Tuesday in December. O’Brien said that early Melbourne Cup favourite Russian Camelot (Camelot) could instead target the Caulfield Cup if it moves to late November.
“The spring is far too early for our horses,” O’Brien told Racing.com. “We rush through our better racing in those early (spring) months when the horses are nowhere near their best and then we shut down from the middle of November when it is the prime time for the animal to be competing at their peak.
“We are stuck with dates in the spring that really don’t suit the racehorse. Most of the three-year-olds haven’t even turned three by the time they’re running for a Caulfield Guineas in early-to-mid-October.
“The best scenario would be for the whole spring to be moved back a month. It would be fantastic if we had our better races pushed further back into the start of the summer. The Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday of December makes so much more sense.”
A third Caulfield Cup winner, Ciaron Maher, believes that the world’s richest mile and a half handicap is no longer the most obvious path to the Melbourne Cup and so the move would not prove too disruptive.
“Obviously, there wouldn’t be a traditional Cups preparation for these horses but what is a traditional preparation these days anyway?” Maher told Racing.com. “Years ago, everything used to kick off in the Aurie’s Star and then race through the Caulfield Cup to the Melbourne Cup but that never happens now.
“Recent years have shown that there are any number of ways of getting to the Melbourne Cup. As long as you have enough notice to plan, it shouldn’t really make a difference.”
Maher did say though that a decision needed to be made quickly in order to prepare horses for target races.
“Whatever they do, they need to sort it out ASAP,” he said. “Horse programs don’t happen overnight so they need to set it in stone so we can then set out horses for which races we want to go for.
“Some of the spring horses are already in and the rest are coming in soon.”
However, Mike Moroney was one who did speak out about the potential shift, agreeing with Hayes and O’Brien that the shift should have been made as a whole and not by moving races out of order.
“I would have thought if the shift was to happen this year, which we knew was a probability, that they would have shifted the whole carnival,” Moroney told SEN Breakfast yesterday morning. “It’s making things fragmented and I think it will make sure that the autumn here next year is very light.
“Sydney looks to be the winners here, they wanted us fragmented which we are. It’s just disappointing and it makes you wonder why we’ve got RVL when you have the clubs running things and making decisions that aren’t for the benefit of racing.
“It’s about racing, it’s not about single clubs doing this and that. If they shifted the whole carnival because of the virus, I could understand that. There are little things you could tweak with but to fragment the whole thing – and not just the spring but the whole year – that’s not the way I don’t think.”
Moroney has Mornington Cup (Listed, 2400m) winner Aktau (Teofilo), who is guaranteed a Caulfield Cup berth, but he admits that his whole preparation will have to be altered if the new schedule is in place.
“It’s going to change things for him now,” he said. “He’ll have a crack at the Melbourne Cup and the Caulfield Cup will be an afterthought, which is not really what we wanted. It’s a bit disappointing. His way of getting to the Caulfield Cup would have been going through the weight-for-age races and getting into the Caulfield Cup with as little weight as possible, that was his winning chance.
“Now, we’re going to be left with doing that and targeting the Caulfield Cup by itself or are we going to do what we intended which was to go to the Melbourne Cup. We’ll have to qualify for the Melbourne Cup and one of our ways of doing it was through the Caulfield Cup.”