October
NovemberUse the power
What is the use of the Victoria Racing Club having the discretionary power to include a horse in a Melbourne Cup field when an in-form horse such as Vigor misses out?
Vigor has won seven Melbourne metropolitan races in the past 20 months (six of them in the past 13) including the Group 2 Makybe Diva Stakes at weight-for-age, and ran a solid third in the Caulfield Cup, acknowledged as the best form race for the big one. Despite this, he is left out of arguably the weakest Melbourne Cup field in several years while hopelessly out-of-form horses find their way in. There is a problem here that urgently needs to be fixed, so fix it!
Furthermore, given that the Melbourne Cup is the holy grail of Australasian racing, it seems stupid to me that connections of borderline horses are denied their chance of a last-minute entry through a lack of emergency runners simply because the TABs cannot cater for more than 24 numbers. That’s absolutely absurd in current times.
Here’s a suggestion: include four emergencies without saddlecloth numbers and if an official runner is scratched by race morning then the first emergency assumes the first scratching’s number, the second emergency the second and so on.
Someone will find a reason to can that idea, but if they do then at least come up with something that will work. The cup should be a race of opportunity not controversy!
Altona (Vic)