Steve looks at the dominance of the internationals in the Melbourne Cup
The Irish were celebrating, the English were left lamenting (yet again) and most Australians – bar prominent owner Lloyd Williams – were left wondering what the hell is going on after yesterday’s Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m).
You all know the bare facts by now. Joseph O’Brien-trained the winner Rekindling (High Chaparral), upstaging his father Aidan with runner-up Johannes Vermeer (Galileo) – both horses raced by Lloyd Williams and partners and Williams now boasts six Cup winners as an owner.
It was, of course, a third win for the Irish following Dermot Weld’s successes with Vintage Crop (Rousillon) and Media Puzzle (Theatrical). The ‘rot’ started with Weld and Vintage Crop in 1993 and was well and truly evident yesterday with Willie Mullins’ Max Dynamite (Great Journey) completing an Irish trifecta in “Australia’s race”!
The fact that the first three home were northern hemisphere trained should have surprised nobody. The score in Melbourne Cup top three placings is now 16-14 in favour of NH-trained horses over the locals in the past ten years and that’s from fewer runners.
The number of visitors is, however, increasing year by year and I doubt will decline even if English trainers might be getting a touch gun shy. The record of Great Britain trained horses in the Cup is now 0-64 (and that’s excluding the Godolphin runners) but the quest endures and remains encouraged by Ed Dunlop, thrice, and Luca Cumani, twice, nearly pulling it off.
There were no fewer than 11 NH-trained runners this year and they filled eight of the first ten places. There’s now been six winners, since Weld blazed the trail, of the race which VRC chairman Amanda Elliott yesterday described, somewhat ironically, as a ‘rich mark of our national heritage’.
I’m not so sure that’s still the case. By definition, the plethora of overseas runners means locally trained horses can miss a start in the Cup. That’s obviously an issue for local owners and trainers and, indeed, for most casual punters who could be forgiven for asking ‘who are these horses?’
There are dramatic changes afoot for next year’s Melbourne Cup. “There will be a prize money increase for the Cup,” VRC chair Amanda Elliott said yesterday, “plus a new race sponsor and the new grandstand. We will also be working with our partner TABcorp on the question of enabling emergency runners.”
Provision for emergency runners is one of several key issues which needs to be part of the VRC’s 2017 Melbourne Cup review. Another may well be whether there are too many overseas trained runners in the race?
The first question is whether too much emphasis is given to English and European form which is denying locally trained horses a start in the race courtesy of the handicapping? Do we need eleven overseas trained runners in the race?
The primary example is the in-form Vengeur Masque (Monsun) missing out on the Cup field for the second year running.
His trainer Mike Moroney, who won the Melbourne Cup in 2000 with Brew (Sir Tristram), is understandably annoyed but measured in his response. “I’m not one for complaining but it does seem too much credence is given to the overseas form.
“Our horse had 50.5 (kilograms) in last year’s Caulfield Cup and ran an eye-catching eighth. He’s since run second in a Group Three, the Queen Elizabeth and second in the Listed Mornington Cup and yet was given only 50 (kilograms) in this year’s Cup. I think a horse from Europe with that Group and Listed form would have been given more weight,” he said.
Post handicap release, Vengeur Masque won the Geelong Cup (Gr 3, 2400m) as did recent Melbourne Cup winners Dunaden (Nicobar) and Americain (Dynaformer). “I was then surprised he was given only a half kilogram penalty for that win. There were European horses above him in the weights and therefore in the field who are not stakes-winners,” Moroney said.
They were Thomas Hobson (Halling), Wall Of Fire (Canford Cliffs) and Nakeeta (Sixties Icon). Yesterday’s field also included four obviously out-of-form horses including the Williams’ owned Gallante (Montjeu) and Bondi Beach (Galileo) who ran, very much, accordingly.
“It’s a shame as I think he (Vengeur Masque) deserved his chance at the two miles. His Geelong Cup win and very close second in the Lexus (Stakes) on Saturday, showed how well he’s going,” Moroney said of the horse who is now likely to run in Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 3, 2600m).
Many a Melbourne Cup myth went out the window when Vintage Crop won in 1993. Another was dispelled this year with Rekindling winning at his Australian debut after 97 horses, post Vintage Crop, had tried and failed to win the Cup at their first run on Australian soil.
Yesterday’s result also speaks again to the superiority of the European-bred staying horse but there can be no encouragement for for locally bred and locally trained horses if a start in the Cup becomes harder and harder to secure.
I make no judgement as to whether the ‘internationalisation’ of the Cup is necessarily good or bad but it may just have spiralled out of control and is, at least, a matter worth considering in the annual Melbourne Cup review.
Let’s make no mistake. The Melbourne Cup may stop Australia and New Zealand but not the rest of the world. It was run at 4am London time.
It’s fine when the massive prize money goes to someone like Lloyd Williams, who is a major employer in the Australian racing industry, as was the case yesterday.
But the presence of the international runners adds nothing in terms of turnover or attendance and there may well be an argument for extending exemptions from the ballot to, perhaps, the first two placegetters in races like the Geelong Cup, Caulfield Cup and Moonee Valley Gold Cup (Gr 2, 2500m) and the Lexus Stakes (registered at Hotham Handicap) (Gr 3, 2500m).
This would suit local trainers and perhaps entice more visitors to run before the Cup which would be a god-send for local bettors.
There are other questions which may well placed on the Cup review agenda. Should there be a panel of veterinarians to determine the soundness of horses after the controversial withdrawal of the Murray Baker-trained Jon Snow (Iffraaj)?
Baker was too diplomatic to publicly attack the decision but privately insists his horse was not lame and fit to run. “He doesn’t trot up well when he’s cold. That’s just him. Like any other athlete, he’s fine when he warms up,” Baker said.
It’s a lot of pressure faced by one Racing Victoria veterinarian to make such a call. Surely a panel could be convened in such circumstances before major races.
Provision, too, for emergency runners must be vigorously pursued. This was highlighted again this year by the scratching of Who Shot Thebarman (Yamanin Vital) 48 hours before the race. Even the supposedly antiquated tote on English racecourses can cope with more than 24 runners.
“We will endeavour to have this resolved by next year,” VRC chair Amanda Elliott said on Cup eve.
The VRC also needs to re-visit the changes to the conditions of application of penalties for the Caulfield Cup winner and consider whether provision needs to be made to allow the exclusion of out-of-form runners?