October
NovemberForget perfection
How lucky were the VRC and Australian racing that we had such an outstanding feelgood story come out of this year’s Melbourne Cup?
Michelle and Steve Payne and Darren Weir should be granted life memberships. Very well done — the world was a nicer place for days after the race with their story dominating the news.
But, at the risk of being a killjoy, this question simply has to be asked. How clever is it being literally too clever by half?
Attempts are being made to prepare the Flemington track to such perfection that it is being timed to the minute.
Trouble is that on Cup day only half of it gave any horse a chance.
When we heard commentators in the races preceding the Cup saying that jockeys had to hold their positions to stay close to the rails because if they went around horses they had no chance of winning, questions must be raised about that pursuit of perfection!
In supposedly the greatest staying race in the world, go more than five wide on the turn into the final straight and you might as well pull your horse up. With 24 horses having to round that turn, the end result was a tragedy for more than half the field.
You could see proven, powerful stayers, “the best stayers in the world”, going up and down on the spot. Is this the professional message that we want to see come out of our great race?
Half the field with no hope of making ground and a bunched finish with no fewer than 11 horses finishing within four lengths of the winner in a time of 3:23.1 on a supposed good 3 track. Says it all.
How could punters, the lifeblood of the racing industry, make decisions amid such uncertainty?
And what about the owners and the trainers, who literally had no chance if their horse was unable to be in the best part of the track?
Many years ago, the only complaint about the Flemington track was about the infamous crossing across the straight.
Maybe it’s time to throw away all of those technical text books and revert to basic common sense.
Torquay (Vic)