Op-Ed: Matthew Sandblom - How to fix the Melbourne Cup

Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

Late last year, I wrote an article in the TDN AusNZ about how the Melbourne Cup had become more of a liability than an asset for racing, mainly due to the high-profile horse injuries and deaths. This article generated a lot of feedback and was the most read article of TDN AusNZ last year.

The feedback that I got most often from racing people, including many trainers, was about how they no longer really followed the race closely due to the predominance of fly-in fly-out horses. So, not only is the race giving the sport a black eye with the general public, it is also not the big deal it used to be with many of racing's core supporters.

So who exactly does benefit from the Melbourne Cup in its current form? The four day Cup carnival has been a cash cow for the Victoria Racing Club (VRC), with some of the highest-priced sporting tickets in Australia if you actually want a seat and something to eat. A few big owners who can afford to source multiple runners from the deep pools of staying talent in Europe.

As for the everybody else: let them eat overpriced sandwiches and be thankful they can experience one of Australia’s great traditions.

The really successful races currently are the races that have a great build up over several months that really build anticipation. The Golden Slipper, Everest and All-Star Mile fit into this category. There are lots of lead-up races, which each add a piece to the jigsaw puzzle that is then completed on the big raceday. Everybody knows the horses and has a view about who will win.

The Melbourne Cup is more of a lucky dip, very few people have closely followed the overseas lead-up races, and the winners are barely known to the average punter.

There are three main things I would do to re-establish the Melbourne Cup to the preeminence it once had. I believe these changes would also reduce the risk of catastrophic injuries.

Firstly, I would make the race more of a genuine handicap again, with a top weight of 60kgs. This would allow a weight range to more truly reflect the ability of each horse and allow for European and Japanese horses to be more truly weighted. Horses from these regions are coming out of systems that focus on breeding stayers and the weights need to reflect this.

Then, I would have 12 races in Australia that you win and you are in the Cup. This would spread the excitement and anticipation of the Melbourne Cup over a much longer period and mean a lot more runners that people are familiar with. Two of the qualifying races would be the ATC and VRC Derbies, with the winners guaranteed a start, with a fixed weight, in the Cup. As a side note, I would move the G1 VRC Derby to the autumn and replace it with a 2000 metre race in the spring called the Phar Lap (give it instant Group 1 status in return for The Everest getting to be a Group 1 as well).

I would also make it a condition of running in the Cup, for all horses, that they would have to have at least two starts in Australia in the six months before the race. This would both help punters assess these horses in Australian conditions and ensure the horses have more time to acclimatise to local conditions.

I think a Cup run under these conditions would be much more appealing to almost all people who follow racing. The build up would be much greater than it currently is. And by having less overseas-trained horses, and then having them spend more time here, it would also reduce the chances of serious injuries.

I want to love the Cup again. Growing up I looked forward to the Melbourne Cup more than I did to Christmas. Is the VRC up to making some real change, or will the weight of tradition slowly drag the race further into irrelevance?