October
OctoberTurn it up
I’ve read some preposterous statements on the Look Who’s Talking page, but the assertion by "Betfair Jake" (3/10) that the Turnbull Stakes is "only a short half head" behind the Cox Plate surely takes the cake.
The Turnbull is worth half a million, the Cox Plate three million. Which would you want your horse peaking for?
Even if all runners were at their peak — which clearly they aren’t — last week’s field, while handy, was 50 yards short of the field that contested the Underwood two weeks earlier.
The Turnbull’s 16 acceptors included eight Group 1 winners who had won 14 Group 1s between them.
Among the Underwood’s 19 acceptors were 14 Group 1 winners of 20 Group 1 races.
We might have been blinded by the fact that Sunline, Northerly, Elvstroem and Makybe Diva have won the Turnbull this decade.
The win of Makybe Diva, which evidently prompted the pattern committee to raise the race to Group 1, was followed by wins to Sphenophyta, Devil Moon and Littorio, none of whom won a race subsequently.
Sure, Devil Moon beat El Segundo and Littorio beat Maldivian and both those horses went on to win the Cox Plate later in the spring. But the fact that they finished unplaced in the Turnbull emphasises its status as a glorified warm-up event — run at set weights and penalties, for goodness sake. It is only a borderline Group 1.
A look at the Yalumba (Caulfield) Stakes honour roll reveals it to be far superior to the Turnbull.
Before last year’s substandard version (Douro Valley beat six rivals), the previous 20 winners were all genuine stars of the turf, with the arguable exception of Northern Drake (1999).
Even so, the Yalumba Stakes ain’t no Cox Plate.
Castlemaine (Vic)