October
MayMind the gap
With reference to Jack Cregan’s letter (29/4), I respect anyone’s opinion but it would take a lot of expenses to explain the difference in stakemoney for Sydney’s major race meetings as against those in Melbourne.
Consider the respective derby days. Sydney recently supplied $10 million plus. Last spring, Victoria derby day did not reach $5 million.
Two of Melbourne’s Group 1 races on that day, the Coolmore Stud Stakes for three-year-olds and the Myer Classic for fillies and mares, had minimum Group 1 prizemoney of $500,000.
These two events are key races, being very prestigious and adding a lot to the winners’ stud value. Frankly, their prizemoney is ridiculously low.
Sydney has a Group 2 race for three-year-old sprinters in the autumn worth $700,000 and the Queen of the Turf for fillies and mares is worth $1 million.
There are many more feature races in Melbourne which lag behind their Sydney counterparts.
All this is disappointing. Melbourne in the spring generally has better weather than Sydney in the autumn, we have better tracks, bigger crowds and yet Victoria appears to be struggling in prizemoney terms.
I repeat, why is this so? I wish someone in authority would please explain.
Frankston South (Vic)