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from Alan Aitken in the SCMP:
What has happened to the Melbourne Cup has highlighted the double-edged sword of globalisation, familiar to the business world, but only just coming into focus for racing.
To some extent it now belongs in the careful-what-you-wish-for category for Melbourne racing officials, who desperately wanted to lift the Cup beyond its iconic local status to a place in the pantheon of world racing.
Well, 20 years on, it is well and truly there and sparking an obvious but two-sided debate about the numerical and actual domination by visiting horses.
The race that once offered, by virtue of its handicap conditions, hopes and dreams to every small owner or trainer in Australia, and later New Zealand, is now offering the same hopes and dreams to big, rich, world-stage owners.
Eleven of the 23 runners yesterday were northern hemisphere-trained, another six or seven sourced from the northern hemisphere and only a handful really had roots in Australia. The nearest one of them got to winning was eighth-placed Niwot.
And bear in mind, quarantine problems have kept the added threat of Japanese stayers excluded since they ran the quinella a few years back.
Foreign horses are nothing new to the Cup – New Zealand-breds have won time and again and going back as far as 1910, Comedy King was bred in England and imported to Australia, while others have been brought from the northern hemisphere to contest the Cup for decades.
The theory always went that Australian horses wouldn’t live with true blue bloods, which was why major stallions standing Down Under were imported from the other side of the world for most of Australia’s racing history.
The theory wasn’t wrong, especially when it came to stamina horses, but it is only now, when taking horses overseas has become more straightforward, that the chickens have come home to roost.
The world is a big place and the kind of money on offer for the Cup naturally attracts attention from those centres where strong stayers are prized, but stake money is modest by comparison: places like Europe, Britain and Ireland.
What has prevented an avalanche, until now, has been the insistence of not all but many trainers on bringing the wrong style of horse. That has been corrected over time and the sharper trainers have settled on the successful idea of a single prep race to fine-tune their runners.
The soulful cry after Vintage Crop’s win 18 years ago that Australia would not win the race again proved unfounded but was probably just premature.
What racing authorities in Melbourne now have to debate among themselves is whether they really do want this foreign sweep out every year, and whether that look is a winner for the Cup years from now.
What can they do, short of making it invitation only? Well, the race is a handicap, for one unique thing. Weights are determined by the ratings of horses, ratings determined by domestic handicappers in home countries and then ratified internationally.
What has been shown by the success of Australian sprinters at Royal Ascot is that official views of southern hemisphere sprinting horses were incorrect for a long time. What will be shown by continued strong European participation in the Melbourne Cup is that the difference between northern and southern hemisphere stayers is wider than officially acknowledged in the ratings and thus in the handicap weights.
That can be remedied.
Also open to the authorities is to review the six-figure Australian dollar sums paid for horses finishing as far back as halfway through the field, and make it more of a gamble for the borderline Europeans.
A trip there is not cheap but, for a second-tier European horse, that is some pretty tidy prize money by their usual standards at home and worth going all that way for what is often, as a result, a mildly profitable trip to run 10. Especially since you also have a ticket in the lottery for the big end of the money, it’s a win to nothing and a thrill.
But when all the arguments are rolled out in coming days about whether all of this is good or bad for the future of the Cup, Racing Victoria still has to admit that what it has now is the global race envisioned two decades ago. The toothpaste is out of the tube – the world is coming to Melbourne for the first Tuesday in November and it isn’t going away.
http://www.racenet.com.au/news/747/74731.asp
Turnover down this year with record International participation.
"To some extent it now belongs in the careful-what-you-wish-for category for Melbourne racing officials, who desperately wanted to lift the Cup beyond its iconic local status to a place in the pantheon of world racing."
If they are "desperate for world racing" that is the inevitable MC outcome as their stayers are as bad internationally as their sprinters are good. If they want a world quality race put on a top money international sprint on the card with a MC open only to Oz horses. Flemington gets even more limelight and the MC keeps up its national allure.
The Melbourne Cup to Autralians is like the Grand National is to the UK. They love the race but it’s world status as long as the USA France and The UK exists is unlikely to change.
The standard of horse we send is very low. Red Cadeaux says it all. No disrespect to the horse but he wouldn’t be sighted in our top races.
The MC is also run at the wrong time of the year or if you prefer the Breeders is.
A horse who probably could win a Melbourne Cup with ease is St Nicholas Abbey but he’s gone to the Breeders and with horses like him the attraction of going there by far outweighs the journey to Oz.
I can’t see it attracting the right type of horse that will see it rise above what it is just now. no matter how much prize money they offer.
A horse who probably could win a Melbourne Cup with ease is St Nicholas Abbey but he’s gone to the Breeders and with horses like him the attraction of going there by far outweighs the journey to Oz.
I can’t see it attracting the right type of horse that will see it rise above what it is just now. no matter how much prize money they offer.
Tbf, I don’t think the Victoria Racing Club or Racing Victoria Limited are expecting 12f Group 1 winners from Britain, Ireland or France to make the trip.
On the bigger issue, mass International participation is certainly here to stay for the Melbourne Cup, it’s not going to change. Where the VRC would be wise is to explore options for a couple more "exempt from ballot" spots into the Melbourne Cup. It won’t change the origin of the horses, you only have to look at the number of European bred runners in Australia across the board to understand that, but such a sweetener ahead of next years race wouldn’t hurt, imo.
Alternatively they could just ask Lloyd Williams how many he would like guaranteed a start.
HGM, given that Red Cadeaux’s performance in the Curragh Cup was arguably the best performance by a UK trained horse over 2 miles this season, how might the UK challenge have been strengthened?
At the pace the race was run Frankel could have walked the fiist mile and won by half the track
I saw nothing special about Red Cadeaux’s run in the Curragh Cup with Fame and Glory running 20lbs below his best the horse still couldn’t win it.
If the race and it is a great race was really prestigious Masked Marvel for one m ay have been tempted. He’d get 2 miles round there no problem Fame and Glory would also have gone there is the race merited it. Sadly it doesn’t.
Anyway using this season only as an example tells you very little about the overall history.,
Ever so slightly OT, but are you suggesting that Frankel is the second coming of Scurlogue Champ in equine form?
They need to look at the qualification rules for European horses. Saptapadi has only ever won a maiden and kept Australian Group and Listed winners out of the race whihc makes a mokers out of it as an international event.
My view is key European horses should only be able to secure entry with a first 2 finish in the Cox Plate and Caulfield Cup, and the ‘Cups’ races which are essentially Australia’s key staying races. There are plenty of races for a European horse to come over to Australia and qualify through as part of a sensible short campaign.
Americain and Dunedan both won the Geelong Cup as part of their build up to the main race, and there are several such races which could be used as qualifying events. It would also ensure added interest and attendance at other venues in the preceding weeks and months.
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Come on Maruco – when did Australian horses ever have to run a qualifying race in the UK before being allowed to run in our big sprints?
Truth is, the lucrative prize for their big race is geared toward a distance the Oz horses aren’t very good at, and it’s unsurprising the stouter bred European horses are taking advantage.I love the fact that the race has turned global. it will force us to change the way we breed or we give all the $$ overseas. As a punter it’s great, o/s horses overpriced.
Let’s also remember that it’s a HANDICAP. Our BEST race is the Cox Plate, not the Melbourne Cup.
And I know that you must be stiring the pot re Frankel & SNA. None would get close to winning a MC. They are rated so high that they would have to carry 60kg+..
I love the fact that the race has turned global. it will force us to change the way we breed or we give all the $$ overseas. As a punter it’s great, o/s horses overpriced.
Let’s also remember that it’s a HANDICAP. Our BEST race is the Cox Plate, not the Melbourne Cup.
And I know that you must be stiring the pot re Frankel & SNA. None would get close to winning a MC. They are rated so high that they would have to carry 60kg+..
If Frankel is considered to not have enough stamina to win the Derby, he sure ain’t winning the Melbourne Cup, no matter what the weight is.
I think the’d be 4 million locals would argue with you about the Cox Plate being the best race. The Melbourne cup is not only Melbourne’s top race it’s the Entire countries unless of course you live in Perth where they have other ideas.
The MC is a Hanidcap and as long as it remains so it will never get the Global recognition of races like the Ascot Gold Cup, The Derby The Breeders, The Arc etc.
The best horses will never be subjected to carrying massive weights when they can run in Grade 1’s in the USA and Europe of levels.
Just about everything about the race makes it unworthy of top billing as a classic.The distance. the conditions, the travelling, the lack of prestige.
A new 10f race mat be the answer but the main problem is the USA and Europe were there first and have so many good Group races there’s nowhere to slot a new race in. Even if they made it the richest race in the world an Epsom Derby winner eg is highly unlikely to go round the world to win a race that would do very little to increase his stud value. Not when he can go for the King George and Queen Elizabeth which is about as prestigious as they come.
Miss Woodward Re: Frankel
Don’t think anyone actually suggested he would run but if a horse of his quality was a 2 miler why on earth would they send him all the way round the world to run in an inferior handicap carrying a 1/2 ton of coal on his back.
Way too many Grade 1 races in the USA and Europe to be entertaining daft ideas like that.
I think the’d be 4 million locals would argue with you about the Cox Plate being the best race. The Melbourne cup is not only Melbourne’s top race it’s the Entire countries unless of course you live in Perth where they have other ideas.
HGM, if you honestly believe that, then, no offense, but you are clueless re racing in Australia. Our WFA racing is the best racing in our country, not our Hcp racing. Whilst the MC is time honoured and prestigeous (down here anyway), it is a hcp. Anyone here, who knows anything about class racing, knows that the WS Cox Plate (2040m)is the best quality race (9 times out of ten) each year. Our WFA ranks at that distance are at their lowest for many years, esp with SYT now gone. Sure, a huge % of our WFA "stars" do race in the MC (many get weighted out of it) but that is fue to the fact that it is worth $6M. If it was worth $2M I assure you that it wouldn’t happen.
I think the’d be 4 million locals would argue with you about the Cox Plate being the best race. The Melbourne cup is not only Melbourne’s top race it’s the Entire countries unless of course you live in Perth where they have other ideas.
HGM, if you honestly believe that, then, no offense, but you are clueless re racing in Australia. Our WFA racing is the best racing in our country, not our Hcp racing. Whilst the MC is time honoured and prestigeous (down here anyway), it is a hcp. Anyone here, who knows anything about class racing, knows that the WS Cox Plate (2040m)is the best quality race (9 times out of ten) each year. Our WFA ranks at that distance are at their lowest for many years, esp with SYT now gone. Sure, a huge % of our WFA "stars" do race in the MC (many get weighted out of it) but that is fue to the fact that it is worth $6M. If it was worth $2M I assure you that it wouldn’t happen.
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