Nobody can argue that the strength of Australian racing lies with our sprinters.
Black Caviar, Takeover Target, Buffering and more recently Nature Strip, have all competed overseas with great success and proved our undeniable wealth of talent over the shorter distances.
But what about our stayers?
In the last few decades our major staying races, the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, have been dominated by overseas raiders, making our local endurance equine athletes look second rate.
Okay, there are a few notable exceptions. Verry Ellegant obviously comes to mind.
But for the most part, the Europeans (and occasionally the Japanese), come, win, take our prize money, then leave.
There’s no denying it creates a good spectacle – but we want to see more competition from the locals!
So, here’s some ideas from unqualified punters regarding how we can improve our overall staying ranks.
Breeding
We’ve got to start at the source! For the most part, our most successful, leading sires are producing sprinting types, because they themselves were sprinters.
And when there’s a stack of cash on offer for juveniles and three-year-olds over sprint distances, it makes sense why these sires are the most sought after and therefore the most expensive.
But what if we got some retired, world class staying sires come to our shores, permanently?
Think a champion like Stradivarius. Recently retired, you would think he would be able to produce some progeny with unreal staying ability!
Money
Yep, more money may help.
Aside from the aforementioned Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup, our staying Group 1 races are not worth a hell of a lot of money.
The Derby and Oaks type races for three-year-old colts, geldings and fillies could be worth a lot more.
With pretty much every racing jurisdiction within Australia increasing prize money across the board, perhaps rather than having more pop-up races we could funnel more into these classics.
The Metropolitan, the Sydney Cup, among others, could all use a boost.
That may encourage local breeders, trainers and owners to invest more in staying progeny.
Wouldn’t you have loved to see a horse like Gypsy Goddess race for a cool $3m in the Queensland Oaks, rather than $700k?
Innovation
We’ve touched on the Derby and Oaks races for three-year-old colts, geldings and fillies – but what happens when they graduate to open class?
The cream of the crop will be good enough to compete in weight-for-age races at middle distances or go on a Cups path.
The genuine stayers though, are limited in options. They will need to be stars to be real hopes in the Cups.
We just alluded to pop-up races maybe taking too big a chunk of the increase in prize money, so this will be hypocritical, but what if there was a new race in the mould of a Golden Eagle specifically for four-year-old horses over 2400m?
It could be worth an absolute monster, be run a few weeks before the Melbourne Cup so horses could continue their prep afterwards.
The best four-year-old horses could still go to the Caulfield Cup instead.
Gee whiz that would encourage a stack of connections to target the race specifically. Look how much the Golden Eagle has become a staple for a good four-year-old’s prep!
We mentioned The Metropolitan before – to be honest that race is stuck in the wilderness a little bit.
Perhaps it’s time for a rebrand… The Golden Metropolitan maybe?
Geez you’d think a horse like Hitotsu would be a moral in race like that.