The Pattern: What’s all the fuss about?

The majority of those offering their opinion to TDN AusNZ over the past few days have been in agreement that there were issues with the current Pattern, including numerous upgrade and downgrades that need to be brought up to date.

It was also agreed that innovation in racing is important, and The Pattern needed to evolve with it. The Federation of Bloodstock Agents Australia (FBAA) released a statement that said 'accommodating positive innovations' must be a consideration for resolving vagaries within the current Pattern.

In recent times, innovation has been thick and fast, with many lucrative ‘millionaire’ races announced in New South Wales.

So, what is stopping The Pattern’s progress?

The crux of the issue lies with the lack of consideration and movement of The Pattern in recent years. It has not continued to evolve as required to accommodate new racing innovations, and it is also argued it has not been respected in the creation and placement of these new races.

Due process must be followed for Group races to be internationally recognised in the Blue Book. The International Grading & Race Planning Advisory Committee (IRPAC) plays a central role as regulator of international stakes quality and provides a process for requests to have races sanctioned as Group races.

The Australian Pattern Committee, traditionally made up of representatives from each industry sector, is tasked with guiding ongoing changes based on the IRPAC parameters.

In 2017, the Australian Pattern Committee ceased in its traditional structure, being replaced by a newly formed appointed committee of three Racing Australia board members, which include the Chairman of Racing NSW and the Chairman of Racing Victoria who have the ability to stifle any resolution by right of veto.

The Australian Pattern Advisory Group (APAG), created to provide experienced guidance on request to the Australian Pattern Committee, is comprised of invited industry participants Adrian Hancock, Vin Cox, Olly Tait, Jon Freyer and Sam Hayes. They met once in 2017 and once in 2018.

The Australian Pattern Committee has not called for a meeting of APAG since, with progression on The Pattern stagnating since May 2018, when two small upgrades were announced by Racing Australia.

The most recent major alteration to The Pattern occurred in October 2017 when two New South Wales races, the Surround S. and the Warwick S. (now the Winx S.), were upgraded to Group 1 level from Group 2, while a further six races had minor upgrades.

The only statement Racing Australia has made on The Pattern in the past two years is the formation of a new Working Party to instigate a strategic review in May 2020, a review which was due in July 2020 and is yet to be publicly released.

That period of inactivity on The Pattern stands in stark contrast to the innovation that has taken place across the broader racing industry in that time. Major new races have been established beginning with The Everest in 2017, followed by the All-Star Mile and the Golden Eagle in 2019, and the recently announced $2 million fillies and mares' race, The Invitation, as well as significant boosts in prizemoney for other established races.

Finding harmony

Respected thoroughbred industry figure Olly Tait, who owns and runs Twin Hills Stud, believes innovation and tradition can work in harmony when it comes to accommodating new feature races on the Australian racing calendar into the structure set in place by The Pattern.

The reason for the hiatus is fairly clear to Tait, who was enlisted by Racing Australia to help with the Pattern process on his return to Australia four years ago.

"I think the process has stagnated because it has been used as a bargaining chip between racing jurisdictions and it shouldn't be. That's not what it was intended to be used for," Tait told TDN AusNZ.

Rather than embolden the discussion around The Pattern, the political impasse between the two major state-based PRAs (Principal Racing Authorities) of Victoria and New South Wales has led to no further evolution of one of the more important structural elements of the Australian thoroughbred industry.

There is precedent in Australia in the relatively recent past when it comes to accommodating a new style of race into a pattern structure. In 2014 and 2015, a Restricted Listed status was introduced for races that restricted eligibility to graduates from certain sales companies.

There are now 10 races with this status within the Australian racing calendar, highlighted by the R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic, R. Listed Magic Millions 3YO Guineas and R. Listed Inglis Millennium, which are all worth $2 million. Winners of these races now receive black type.

This has been done without diminishing the value of black-type races in Australia, which have not increased by any significant number in the past 10 years. Not counting those R. Listed races mentioned above, there have been just five more races added to the Group and Listed schedule in Australia since 2013/14.

However, that change was made with the agreement of all the relevant stakeholders, something which hasn't been able to be achieved in the current environment.

The Pattern, which has its genesis in the 1970s, has been designed to take careful consideration of the increasing/decreasing profile of a race. It is supposed to be a slow-moving beast, not prone to sudden trends, and the movement of races up and down in the Australian landscape has been limited in the past 15 years.

The most recent race to have lost Group 1 status in Australia was the G1 Western Australian Derby in 2011, while there have been seven races elevated from Group 2 to Group 1 in that time. They are the two mentioned above, the Surround S. and Winx S., the Makybe Diva S., the Memsie S., the Moir S., the Winterbottom S. and the Canterbury S.

Total: Australian Group 1 and stakes races per season

There are two things you will notice about that list. Firstly, six of the seven upgraded races are in the two major states, New South Wales and Victoria, with the other in WA, replacing another race in that jurisdiction.

The second aspect is that all of those races are staged at distances of 1600 metres or less, reflecting Australia's move to embrace sprinters over stayers in the past 30 years. The upgrading of those races followed the downgrade of several Derby and Cup races from Group 1 races in the early 2000s.

It was that trend towards sprinters which was the driving force behind the attempt of Racing NSW to establish The Everest as the marquee sprinting event in Australia.

Moves to afford the race Group 1 status have become mired in by political infighting between the states, which Tait said does not reflect any shortcomings on the part of The Pattern.

"No one who is supportive of The Pattern is unsupportive of innovation in the industry. We all get that we have to move forward and we all applaud that innovation, which can draw new eyeballs to the sport," he said.

"There is no reason why innovation can't go hand in hand with the integrity of The Pattern, which is one of the most important traditions of the industry."

Tait is a believer that the PRAs should be free to innovate where they see they need to, and if that means the creation of new feature races, then that should feed into the discussion around The Pattern, which the Pattern Committee was initially set up to facilitate.

"Each of those racing jurisdictions is free to do what they want in terms of a setting up of a race. The major states are within their rights to put what races they want and allocate funds to those races as they wish. That is their responsibility," he said.

"Equally, the assignation of a status to those races should be up to a Pattern Committee, which represents the international pattern and makes sure the guidelines set out are adhered to. Therefore, we can keep that in check with the rest of the world.

"I think The Pattern works well and new races should be assessed on their merits. There is absolutely no reason why a new race if it goes through the processes which are proscribed by The Pattern, shouldn't be ascribed that status.

"Obviously what we have to do is try and bring the entire industry along. I feel what John Messara said was right in that we have to mesh the evolution of the industry with the traditions of it, and if you say that one of the traditions of the industry is The Pattern, then we should strive to mesh the innovation, with the integrity of The Pattern in mind."