October
SeptemberGroupthink
Could Winning Post explain what constitutes a Group 1 race? Who makes that judgment? I made a list of Tulloch’s 36 wins and I think they only included nine Group 1s.
However, the prizemoney for Sires’ Produce Stakes races (of which he won three) in those days was more than for the Cox Plate and Mackinnon Stakes.
At the end of his three-year-old season, Tulloch had won 21 races. Black Caviar had won five.
In about 100 days, Tulloch won 13 great races of the Australian turf by a total of more than 83 lengths.
We are told today Black Caviar has won her 22 races by more than 70 lengths.
I think the group ratings are wrong. I hope Winning Post can help — what was Group 1 and what wasn’t?
Matt Baldwin
Wagga Wagga (NSW)
• Reply: We can count 16 races that are now Group 1s on the list of 36 that Mr Baldwin provided. However, the pattern system (group and listed races) was not introduced in Australia until 1979, long after Tulloch retired. Major races before this time are lumped together by the Australian Stud Book as "principal races", and it records that Tulloch won 32 of those. For reasons Mr Baldwin alludes to, it is not possible to be too precise about this sort of thing because each race’s prizemoney and relative prestige fluctuates over time. As he notes, the VRC and QTC Sires’ Produce races used to be much bigger deals than they are now. And, as is well known, for most of the 20th century the Moonee Valley Cup was a richer and more prestigious race than the Cox Plate. These days the rating of each race is a matter for the Australian Pattern Committee, made up of representatives of the Australian Racing Board, the major selling agents, major race clubs, state governing bodies and handicappers.
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