October
FebruaryCheap date
Black Caviar was absolutely magnificent in winning her third Lightning Stakes. However, despite attracting about four times as many people to Flemington as might otherwise have been expected, she earned $150,000 less for winning than last year.
The Victoria Racing Club has been cutting stake money for a lot of feature races because it is struggling to find the $6 million for the Melbourne Cup. It is wrong.
I have read that these cuts even had some influence on the sale of Royal Haunt to Asian interests.
One of the odd things about these cuts is that the Mackinnon Stakes on Derby day retains a $1 million purse, twice that of the Lightning. The Mackinnon Stakes is a very dubious Group 1 race and should not be worth anything like the value of the Lightning, which is part of the Global Sprint Challenge.
The Victoria Racing Club got Black Caviar to Flemington very cheaply. She is a marvellous horse and deserves much more than to have a poorly endowed weight-for-age race named after her.
Frankston South (Vic)