Victorian spring carnival dates to remain unchanged in 2020
Racing Victoria has rejected a proposal to make sweeping changes to the 2020 spring carnival.
In a Melbourne Racing Club-backed move, plans were tabled to shift the Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) from a traditional mid-October date to a late November timeslot.
The proposal would have upended decades of thoroughbred racing tradition by running the Caulfield Cup after the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m).
But after submissions from key industry stakeholders, Racing Victoria (RV) yesterday announced the spring carnival’s status quo would remain.
As usual, the Memsie Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) meeting at Caulfield on August 29 will herald the start of the spring.
In leaving the carnival untouched, RV chairman Brian Kruger said there had been continual discussions during the past six weeks on what the spring carnival may look like in a year affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The spring racing carnival has been so successful, it is a global icon, and we felt in order to consider making change, even in this Covid-19-affected world, there really needed to be some compelling reasons for us to do that,” Kruger told Racing.com.
“We acknowledged some potential upside around crowds and wagering and the like, but we just felt those issues were uncertain enough at this point in time to warrant making such a significant change to the spring racing carnival program.”
Kruger said the Victoria Racing Club and the Moonee Valley Racing Club wanted to keep their traditional dates.
He said an enormous amount of work went into developing an alternative spring program which was sent to race clubs, the Australian Trainers’ Association, the Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association as well as individual owners and trainers.
“It was all that input the RV board considered before making its decision this morning,” Kruger said.
“There were views in the camp of don’t move it, there were views in the camp of move it, but the majority of people were saying if you want to move it we’ll support it, but it’s not our preferred position.”
Kruger said the RV board would meet later in June to discuss spring carnival prize-money.
Reaction was swift on both sides, with Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) chairman Peter Le Grand lashing out at the RV board on SEN.
“[This is] another weak decision, totally predictable, it’s a gutless position as far as I’m concerned,” Le Grand told SEN. “I thought, here was an opportunity in 2020 to be different in racing, to be innovative and try something different. There’s absolutely no innovation coming out of RVL.
“Fair dinkum, I’m nearly speechless. I can’t believe it. Here was an opportunity in Covid-19 times to put it back a month, give people and members a chance to get the races in better weather, and what do we do? Just keep on going the way you’re going, don’t change anything, just go along with what we’ve been doing the last hundred years.
“I know some people don’t agree with this and that’s fine, they’re entitled to their opinion and I respect it. But this was a chance to try it and if it didn’t work you go back to October in 2021. It’s not real hard.”
On the flip side, the Australian Trainers’ Association (ATA) and the Victorian Racehorse Owners Association backed the RV decision, although ATA chief Andrew Nicholl did accept that “there was probably no wrong decision”.
“[There were] just decisions that were going to be more right, or more appropriate for the time,” Nicholl told Racing.com.
“Things like flow, the Autumn Carnival, considerations of field composition, all those issues’ viewpoint, the committee here felt that the status quo for the Carnival was the best outcome.
“There are so many moving parts that a decision of this nature was always going to be an extremely difficult one for RV to line up all of those answers and come up with the right answer.
“I really feel, in a way, for the Melbourne Racing Club in terms of having to put some research around what the benefit might be because, at the end of the day, there’s so many unknowns.
“It was an ambitious plan and are they entitled to ask the question – clearly, they’re a business and they’re able to do that – but overarching that is that there’s a lot of state-based and national considerations.
“It was always going to be a really difficult decision for Racing Victoria to make with so many other stakeholders and so many other parties that have a stake in this, not just Melbourne Racing Club.”
Victorian Racehorse Owners Association chairman Jonathan Munz told Racing.com that it was “the correct decision in the interests of the industry as a whole”.
“All the major owners, trainers and breeders opposed the MRC proposal. The other race clubs opposed it too in varying degrees – they just did not want to say anything publicly,’’ he said.
“It was not a difficult decision. Anyone who knew anything about racing would have realised that was the only decision you could make.
“The clear view was that the disruption to the racing calendar and lead-up races and the impact on the Autumn carnival overrode any one-off benefit to a few MRC major race days.
“I appreciate the MRC’s concern about potential clashes with AFL matches and potential one-off shortfalls in revenue this year and would support any request by them to help the Club.”
Melbourne’s spring Group 1 calendar
Memsie Stakes (1400m) – August 29
Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) – September 12
Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) – September 19
Moir Stakes (1200m) – September 25
Underwood Stakes (1800m) – September 26
Turnbull Stakes (2000m) – October 3
Caulfield Guineas (1600m) – October 10
Thousand Guineas (1600m) – October 10
Caulfield Stakes (2000m) – October 10
Toorak Handicap (1600m) – October 10
Caulfield Cup (2400m) – October 17
Manikato Stakes (1200m) – October 23
Cox Plate (2040m) – October 24
Victoria Derby (2500m) – October 31
Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) – October 31
Cantala Stakes (1600m) – October 31
Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) – October 31
Melbourne Cup (3200m) – November 3
VRC Oaks (2500m) – November 5
Mackinnon Stakes (2000m) – November 7
VRC Sprint Classic (1200m) – November 7