The great Derby debate

Every year the debate over the ideal distance for the G1 Victoria Derby arises but proponents of change feel the time for talk has ended and it's time the Victoria Racing Club took action on shortening the race to 2000 metres.

The historic race was run over one and a half miles, the equivalent of 2400 metres, from 1855 until 1971, when it was changed to 2400 metres for 1972 when metric measurement was introduced. A year later, because of the configuration of the Flemington course and to allow a longer run to the first bend, it was lengthened to 2500 metres, where it has remained for the past 46 years.

For much of its 164-year history, it has been the marquee event on the first day of the VRC Spring Carnival, now referred to as the Melbourne Cup Carnival. 'Derby Day' has evolved into the premier day of racing in Australia, with all nine events held at Group level, including four Group 1 races.

But with a stronger focus in the past 30 years on breeding sprinters over stayers in Australia, and the internationalisation of the G1 Melbourne Cup making it a race primarily contested by internationally bred horses, the relevance of that 'marquee' race has been called into question.

Newgate Managing Director Henry Field is among those leading a call for change, saying the race itself is verging on irrelevance.

"I just think it’s a very simple equation. On what is meant to be the blue riband day in Australia on VRC Derby day, if they want the best horses, the best 3-year-olds in the land, they have to make it 2000 metres," Field told TDN AusNZ.

"In this day and age, no-one in their right mind with a proper 3-year-old is going to take a risk with them over 2500 metres when many of them haven't even turned three yet."

"When I was growing up, people ran their best 3-year-olds in that race, but that's not happening anymore. The proper 3-year-olds are now going to the Cox Plate and are usually avoiding running in the VRC Derby."

The performance of horses coming out the Derby is an example often used as to why it is long past the time of being a nursery for future champions.

Since the turn of the century, 11 of the 19 Victoria Derby winners have gone on to win another Group 1 race, with just five of those winning multiple top-flight races after the Derby.

Certainly last year's VRC Derby has failed to produce anything of note. The field of 16 that lined-up that day have had 71 combined starts since with just four wins from three horses and none of them at black-type level.

What is also significant is that five of those 16 starters, for a variety of reasons, have not been seen at a racetrack since.

Leading syndicator Brad Spicer was an owner in Extra Brut (Domesday), who won last year's Victoria Derby and was subsequently sold to Hong Kong.

While the race has provided him with one of his great highlights, he is another that believes it is time for change.

"Just going on last year, a lot haven't gone on from the race and I think that's a common theme over the last few years," he said.

"What happens is that the quality colts are kept to the shorter distances for stud careers and to protect them. While you might get a few of the lesser quality animals that are bred to stay or have a bit of a doubt on them and trainers will push them a bit further to get a bit more out of them."

"I love the Derby. I've always loved it. It’s a great staying test for the horses but I see maybe the quality of race might get better if we shortened it."

The breeding challenge

Field and Spicer both raised the Derby's increasing irrelevance to the breeding industry as another argument for change.

History says that 11 of the 12 colts who have won the Derby since 2000 have gone on to careers as a stallion, with two of them to date becoming Group 1 producers, Elvstroem and Helenus.

It should be noted that five of them are in the early stages of their stud career. 2013 winner Polanski's oldest crop have just turned four, 2014 winner Preferment (NZ) and 2015 winner Tarzino's (NZ) first crops are yearlings, while 2016 winner Prized Icon and 2017 winner Ace High only entered stud this year.

But the commerciality of Derby winners at stud is an ongoing issue. Of the six active stallions that have won a Victoria Derby, the highest service fee is Tarzino at NZ$15,000 at Westbury Stud. Three of them are standing in New Zealand, while none of the three which stand in Australia are in the breeding heartland of the Hunter Valley.

"I just feel that if you move the Derby back to 2000 metres, it will give the studs the confidence that you can send some of your better 3-year old colts there past the Guineas and maybe assemble a much better quality field," Spicer said.

The Sangster family knows a thing or two about Derby winners and bred and raced the most successful stallion from modern times to have won the Victoria Derby in Blackfriars, who was successful in 1999.

But Adam Sangster, who runs Swettenham Stud in Victoria, pointed out that Blackfriars needed to go to Western Australia to get his opportunity.

"From a breeding point of view, we sold Blackfriars. He ran as a very early 3-year old and the market at the time didn’t want Derby winners, and still doesn’t largely. But he had ten years as being champion stallion in Western Australia," he said.

Sangster very much sees both sides of the argument, with the importance of tradition needing to be weighed against the evolving needs of the market.

"It is very dangerous tinkering with something that is steeped in history. It’s not broken but from a commercial situation for a stallion it’s not ideal," he said.

"I think if there is merit for it, and it’s what the customer wants, it may warrant consideration. I do love mile-and-a half racing, but I totally get the feasibility of the argument for change."

Sangster noted that the French Derby, the Prix Du Jockey Club, was shortened to 2100 metres in 2005.

Home of the stayer

In a bid to boost its traditional staying races, Victoria has positioned itself as home of the staying breed in Australia with Melbourne Cup winners Fiorente (Ire) (Sun Stud) and Americain (USA) (was at Swettenham Stud, now at Daisy Hill) among a host of stallions who are trying to defy the trend towards a speed orientated breed.

From a race programming point of view, a need for a pathway to the Derby was identified a number of years ago and for the last three years the VRC have run the Derby and Oaks Trials in the last week of September while the Byerley H., run over 1800 metres for 2-year-olds in July, now offers ballot-free entry to either the Derby or Oaks for the winner.

"The VRC is home of the stayer, so as well as the tradition, a lot of the racing programs are around supporting the stayer," Leigh Jordon, VRC's Executive General Manager of Racing said. "With this race we have implemented some good lead-in type events to support it."

"The Club feels it also supports the Melbourne Cup as well as our other races, whether that be the St Leger in the autumn, or races like the Bart Cummings, to be run this weekend."

It is with that in mind, as well as the fact that there hasn't been an Australian-bred Melbourne Cup winner in ten years that another leading syndicator, Shelley Hancox, is adamant that the Victoria Derby must remain at 2500 metres.

"We might as well just say that every major staying race is going to be won by an internationally bred horse. We will never breed any of our own if we knock off the 3-year-old stayers and shorten their distances. What incentive is there for anybody to be breeding and developing staying horses?" she said.

"The way our breeding has progressed has not helped us. It’s the proliferation of these dirt- running American thoroughbreds, it has taken us backwards in many ways."

She also pointed out that both the VRC Derby and VRC Oaks continue to attract capacity fields, something which racing administrators use as a crucial metric to determine success.

"You don’t have to change everything to get people interested in the sport. Why change all the very well supported things. If the Derby or Oaks was not getting a full field and hadn’t for four or five years in a row, maybe we can change it, but they do," she said.

Jordon pointed to the fact that this weekend's Listed UCI S. at Flemington, another key lead in for the Derby, has attracted 27 nominations, as an example of the depth of local staying talent and the willingness of trainers to stretch their horses out in distance.

Too much, too young?

Hancox, who has been working as a syndicator for 30 years, is also not a subscriber to the suggestion that the 3-year-olds are not mature enough to handle the 2500 metres in early November.

"The argument that they are too young as 3-year-olds to be running over that distance in the spring, that doesn't wash with me. You look at the Epsom Derby, that's run in late May, and they are pretty much the same age," she said.

But Field believes that is a major concern for many trainers and owners and will continue to prevent the best and brightest of each generation going to the Derby.

"By all means run a 2500-metre Derby in the autumn, but if they want to do the best thing for racing and for the horse, they need their heads read if they don’t move it back to 2000 metres," he said.

"Every year, this debate is being had and every year, nothing gets done. Every year it becomes more irrelevant to the calendar."

The history debate

Field also doesn’t believe moving the Derby back to 2000 metres will impact on the great tradition of the race.

"Changing the distance of the race by 500 metres is not going to change history, it's just moving with the times. It’s a very important event in the racing calendar and I really feel strongly that the VRC have to move with the times," he said.

"The VRC is such a wonderful club and it stands for so much that is good about horse racing, but I can't think of one good argument why it doesn't come back to 2000 metres."

The need to stay contemporary has never been more important, with a strong challenge on Flemington's hold on the biggest week of racing for the year from New South Wales with the $7.5 million Golden Eagle to be staged for the first time this year on the same day as the Derby.

While it is a race for 4-year-olds, so won't impact the quality of the Derby field, Field said the establishment of another feature race is a threat to the primacy of the 164-year-old Derby.

"The Derby is not just a commercial irrelevance from a breeding point of view, but with the competition for high-level racing, and you only have to look at the Golden Eagle on the same day, you have to be careful it doesn't become an irrelevance for racing itself," he said.

Spicer is very much in the same camp, saying racing tradition does need to evolve.

"I understand what the opposition would be but you have to change and evolve. Racing is struggling with identity at the moment and cutting through to the everyday Mum and Dad," he said. "There's a challenge there and racing authorities must meet it."

But Jordon emphasised that the VRC also runs the G1 Coolmore Stud S. over 1200 metres and the G3 Carbine Club S. over 1600 metres on Derby Day for 3-year-olds, while the weight-for-age G1 Mackinnon S., which is a 2000 metre event, is now on the final Saturday as another option.

It’s clear that there is no change on the horizon, with the VRC committed to the race in its current format.

"When you look at the overall staying agenda we have here at the club, we are very happy to keep the race where it is at the moment," he said.