Whether you are a traditionalist racing fan or a new spectator captivated by the prizemoney on offer, there is undoubtedly some fantastic viewing over the next week or two
Melbourne Cup Week has been a bucket list for many people. As an owner, trainer, breeder, or jockey, this time of year is the culmination of a lot of planning, endless hours of hard work and anticipation. Races like the Melbourne Cup, VRC Derby, VRC Oaks, Coolmore Stud Stakes, Champions Day and many more provide a proven and emerging formula for attracting the best horses, all while the spectator participation on and off the track allows horseracing to showcase the Australasian industry on the world stage.
In recent years, we have seen enormous increases in stakes in NSW. With this has come the emergence of races such as The Everest, the Golden Eagle, the Kosciuszko, and the Five Diamonds. While these new races provide new targets and greater returns for a proportion of owners (those lucky enough to win any of these races), there are still many who are drawn by the aura and atmosphere present on days like WS Cox Plate Day at Moonee Valley, Caulfield Cup day, and the upcoming Flemington carnival, which kicks off on Saturday.
This year we have a host of black-type racing at Flemington on opening day, with all nine races carrying Group status, including the VRC Derby Gr.1, Coolmore Stakes Gr.1 and the Empire Rose Stakes Gr.1. The winners of these races will bolster their value considerably if successful and in the case of either a colt or a filly who might have lucrative breeding careers ahead of them, a win can be a gamechanger for connections.
In Sydney, racing transfers to Rosehill this weekend and while the 9-race card doesn’t carry any races with black-type status, it includes the Golden Eagle (A$10,000,000), Giga Kick Stakes (A$3,000,000), Rosehill Cup (A$750,000), and the Four Pillars Midway (A$500,000). The Golden Eagle for 4YO’s over the 1500m has attracted a strong field headed by the Gerry Harvey home-bred Hawaii Five-Oh and includes the Group 1 winners Attrition, Golden Mile, Amelia’s Jewel, Communist, Kovalica, Legarto, and Ruthless Dame, which will make it a great race.
It’s hard to argue that these race days should not exist. It's just a shame that a better-planned calendar cannot be developed to avoid the best horses, best jockeys, and best trainers being divided between two venues on such an important day for racing – surely the opportunity of bringing a ‘best of the best’ to one venue, at one time of the year to highlight our very best horses and humans would see horseracing sit beside (or even above) all other professional sports. In the case of racing in Australia, there is a great opportunity to build a Spring Champion’s Carnival and an Autumn Champion’s Carnival with the two jurisdictions complementing one another to achieve the best results for racing in general.